


I need you // Klance

by Not_so_emo_emo



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Abused Lance (Voltron), Allura & Lance (Voltron) are Cousins, Altean Lance (Voltron), Bilingual Lance (Voltron), Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Black Paladin Keith (Voltron), Blue Paladin Lance (Voltron), Bottom Lance (Voltron), Foster Kid Keith (Voltron), Galra Keith (Voltron), Gay Keith (Voltron), Insecure Lance (Voltron), Keith (Voltron) Angst, Keith (Voltron) is Bad at Feelings, Keith (Voltron) is a Mess, Keith/Lance (Voltron) Angst, Korean Keith (Voltron), Lance (Voltron) Angst, Lance (Voltron)-centric, M/M, Oblivious Keith (Voltron), Original Character(s), Pining Keith (Voltron), Pining Lance (Voltron), Platonic Allura/Lance (Voltron) - Freeform, Red Paladin Keith (Voltron), Red Paladin Lance (Voltron), Responsible Lance (Voltron), Space Uncle Coran (Voltron), Supportive Coran (Voltron), Top Keith (Voltron), Touch-Starved Keith (Voltron)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-26
Updated: 2021-03-05
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:07:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 43
Words: 51,201
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27207106
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Not_so_emo_emo/pseuds/Not_so_emo_emo
Summary: "Blaytz, my original paladin." Blue supplied in response to his thoughts shifting to the blue alien.Blaytz and the Altean seemed to be whispering to each other, giggling. It reminded Lance of whenever him and Pidge would gossip at the dinner (although he and Pidge rarely sat next eachother) or even those nerve wracking times when Pidge and Keith decide they want to prank someone.The Altean was average height, for a human at least, and had long blueish white hair gently cascading down his back, tied in a loose ponytail.His face was what startled Lance the most. It was shockingly similar to his own. Smooth tanned skin, he didn't seem to be wearing any make up, unlike Lance who usually wore it to cover his freckles. His eyes seemed to be glowing with excitement in a blue that matched the markings that lay under his eyes."That is Amira, my second paladin."Lance finds out he's part-Altean along with his feelings for a certain red paladin. Goes through seasons 2-3 and becomes canon divergent at about the season 3 point. Lance is my favourite character so of course there's gonna be a ton of langst.
Relationships: Allura & Keith (Voltron), Allura & Lance (Voltron), Coran & Lance (Voltron), Hunk & Keith (Voltron), Hunk & Lance (Voltron), Keith & Pidge | Katie Holt, Keith & Shiro (Voltron), Keith & The Blade of Marmora, Keith & Voltron Paladins, Keith/Lance (Voltron), Lance & Blue Lion (Voltron), Lance & Pidge | Katie Holt, Lance & Shiro (Voltron), Lance & Voltron Paladins
Comments: 83
Kudos: 292





	1. Chapter 1

Hunks screams could be heard through the comms mixing with Lance's as they plummeted towards an icy planet.

As they crashed through the icy surface, Lance's head lunged forward at the impact.  
After allowing his head to clear for a few seconds, he grunted and looked around, acutely aware of the silence that now filled the comms.  
"Hunk, you okay? Hunk?"  
Worry ate away at his chest until he heard the familiar and unpleasant sound of hunk barfing into our comms.  
"I'm fine."  
"You just threw up, didn't you?" Disgust dripped off my voice as memories of car journeys with Hunk as a child seeped into his mind.  
"Well, yeah. You would too if you got sucked out of a wormhole at light-speed, then crash-landed on an ice planet and ended up underwater.", My best friend replied with an annoyed, defensive tone.  
"That is what happened to me!"  
"Oh, Right."  
The blue paladin sighed, he often worried about how Hunk would stay alive without him.

'He doesn't need you.'

"Cállate.", He muttered under his breath. Hunk may not be fluent in Spanish but he didn't want to risk offending him and then having to explain how the voices were getting stronger again.

In an effort to distract himself, he began checking Blues systems, hopefully to get them back to the castle before this gets any worse. He just couldn't stop the nagging worry over his teammates.  
He had seen Keith and Shiro being swept out together and although he knew they were both amazing fighters he couldn't help feeling anxious. Not to mention Pidge.  
She was like a little sister to him. Although he definitely knew by now that he shouldn't have to worry. The girl's a complete badass and a genius.

His controls flashed red, bringing him back to his senses.  
"My main systems down. The crash must have screwed it up." Lance reported glumly, "Does yours work?"  
"Mines on reserve power. My lion's pretty much dead in the water."

Lance groaned. He could almost see his smug expression. This is why as much as he hated it, he was the goofball of the group.  
As much as the rest of the team complain about it, their humor isn't much better than his, he didn't even really know what Mullet's is to be honest.  
'That's going to be my new goal when we get back, making Mullet laugh.'

"This situation is bad enough, Hunk. Don't make it worse with puns."

"I'm just shocked that we hit a planet. I thought Pidge said space was 90% empty."

"Well, apparently Pidge's science is wrong."

"We need to contact the others and get back to the group immediately.  
Hello, anyone? This is Hunk and Lance of the yellow and blue lions."

"They know the colors of our lions."

"Oh, right. Okay, yeah. I always forget that."  
Again how does he get through the day.

'Because he's not as useless as you.'

His thoughts were interrupted along with their descent as they hit the sea floor.  
The sound of blue grinding at the rocky surface beneath them snapped him back to attention.  
"We gotta check for damage and get these lions running."  
"Copy that"  
"Oh, good. The blue lions coming back online. Welcome back, beautiful."  
The blue glow of his lion was comforting yet oddly eerie at the same type. Lance felt an grateful purr in the back of his head at the compliment.

He brought her head up with the headlight breaking into the dark water and started when he saw a silhouette ahead of him.  
It swam away almost as soon as the light hit it but long enough for him to make out a rough shape.  
"Uh...Hunk, did...did you just see something swim by?"  
"What? No."  
Lance spun his controls around trying to get a good look around them, when he saw it again. A mermaid, defiantly a mermaid.  
"No way! This is going to sound crazy, but I think I just saw a mermaid."

"Oh, boy. Okay, how hard did you bang your head when we hit the planet?"

"Dude, I'm serious!" He was almost offended but he got why he wouldn't believe him.  
'Why would he believe you? You just mess around all the time. Why would now be any different?'

Lance gasped as it appears again, "Look! There it is again! Hey, come here! Where you going? Hey slow down!", he said as he spun around, desperately trying to get a good look at what he was assuming was a her. 

Lance had always been fascinated with mermaids. He would totally believe that they were real.  
"Lance, Knock it off. We have to stay focused and get to the others...and you're outside your lion. Great."

"I know we have to find the others. I'm just saying maybe this thing can help.", He tries to reason, "Also it's a mermaid. A mermaid! Come on, let's find it!"

"No. No way. Nope. Not going out there."  
"Okay, you stay here, by yourself, in the dark, all alone in a lion that's out of commission."  
Before he even finished speaking he was out.  
"Don't leave me!"  
Lance turned the torch on his gauntlet on and revealed the mermaid from before hiding behind a rocky pillar. It swam off, not waiting for them to catch up.  
"Come on!"  
They swam, or more propelled themselves with their jet packs, towards the mysterious creature.  
"I can't believe this. We're chasing a real life mermaid!", Hunk proclaimed excitedly. Ahead of them the mermaid giggled.

She then sped up and hid out of their sight.  
"Hey, wait, wait, wait! We're friendly!"  
He looked around for the mermaid quickly before both he and Hunk spotted the large, glowing, underwater castle laid before them.  
"Hello-"  
Both paladins squeak in surprise and turn to see the mermaid from before floating behind them. She was colored yellow, pink and blue with large dark eyes.  
"Welcome to my village. Here all are safe and warm." She tilted her head to the right to give them a small closed eyed smile.  
They quickly noticed the two larger, armed mermen looming behind them. They shrieked and sped behind the nicer looking mermaid.  
"Please, do not startle our guests. I am Florona. The almighty queen Luxia, keeper of this land, would love to meet with you."  
"Wait, how'd your Queen know we were here?" Lance asked curiously although it probably sounded more suspicious.  
"Queen Luxia knows all."  
Well that wasn't ominous at all.

Soon they were at the castle gates, meeting with the Queen.  
"Space travelers, I am Queen Luxia. I welcome you to our village as honored guests."  
Hoping to perhaps gain a new ally for the coalition, Lance made sure to introduce himself, "The honors all ours, I'm la- aaaaance"  
Well that failed, he thought as he floated upside down in front of the Queen.

"Uh Misses Queen," Hunk began as he grabbed Lance's leg, attempting to bring him the right way round, "Your honor, your excellence, I'm Hunk. And me and my buddy here, we crash-landed on your lovely planet, but we really need to get back in touch with our friends who are in space.", finally he was back in a more normal position, "Uh would you possibly have any way of doing that?"

"Hunk, Lance, I can solve all of your problem. Here we are all safe and warm."

Lance began to zone out as Hunk started asking about magic, they probably just meant they'd be able to help them find their friends but he couldn't help but think of his dwindling supply of antidepressants.  
'Stop just thinking about yourself. The others could be in danger and all you can think about are your pills?!'  
Yeah, I'm just being selfish.  
Lance tried to pay attention again as they were given air bubbles so they could breathe normally without their helmets. He absentmindedly wondered about the pressure of the water and how they didn't look like raisins right now.

The Queen led them inside to a dining room. They talked about their friends, how they crashed and the Queen talked about how her planet has frozen over and how they had been forced beneath the surface and how they relied on the plants from the Baku garden for food.

As they ate, Lance began to feel fuzzy and warm, completely at ease.  
Soon enough everything went dark.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance meets up with the rebels. Most of the first few episodes will be Lance or Keith's perspective of actual episodes from the series but the further in the more freedom I'll get.

Lance was forced out of his dream- like state but a strange smell. He immediately noticed the blindfold like object over his eyes and the uncomfortable position his hands were tied in behind his back.  
He could feel people around but couldn't make out any scents other than the one shoved into his face.  
"Wait, where am I? Why am I blindfolded? Is this a game? I hate games!"  
Lance didn't hate games but he did hate being in the dark and the blindfold was making him feel horribly claustrophobic.

Thankfully, they ripped the blindfold off to reveal what seemed to be three merpeople but either their faces looked like octopuses or they were wearing some sort of sea creatures on them like masks. And now Lance had the uncomfortable feeling that he was being held for ransom.  
"It's okay. You were mind-swished, but now we want to"-  
"KILL ME!? Think again."  
Lance backed away from them, banging his head into a wall in the process, grunting he kicked off and fired up his boosters to propel himself past them and into another section of the cave system. At each turn he had to come to an abrupt halt more than once, as various sharp objects and weapons protruded from a variety of angles.  
'Dios, do they want me to impale myself.'

Eventually he found a smaller more peaceful cave filled with fascinating sea creatures.  
He'd always loved the sea. Pidge found a way to download various shows and movies from earth, the first thing he asked for was a marine life documentary series. She thought it was weird but obliged. Coran and Allura found it fascinating and asked to borrow it a few times. One of his fondest memories was the time Keith randomly joined him to watch it and got overly invested in which animals would survive and ended up betting on them. Lance was proud to say he won more than Keith did.

He swam slowly towards the creatures. They looked kinda cute until they blew up to an enormous side.  
Startled, Lance hurried backwards away from them right into his kidnappers. He squeaked when he noticed them and backed up.  
"Don't hurt me!" Seriously I need to find Hunk and the others.  
"Please, We're not here to hurt you. We brought you here to ask for your help. I am Plaxum."  
"Blumflump."  
"Swirn."  
"Are you saying names or is this some kind of spell you're putting on me?" Alien names are weird.

"We believe you are our savior."  
"You guys think I'm your savior. What do you want with me?"

"The queen is mind-swishing everyone, controlling their thoughts. We believe you can stop her."  
The Blue paladin couldn't tell if they were lying or not as he couldn't see their faces. And how can he trust, them they kidnapped him. 

They began leading him back to the cave he woke up in.  
"Wait. Wait a minute. Okay. You're trying to tell me the queen is brainwashing people? But she's so...safe and warm."  
The more impatient mermaid spoke up, "What do you remember from yesterday?"  
"I remember we crashed, saw the mermaids and the village, then we had dinner, and then, uh we, uh."  
"You can't remember because you were under her control."  
It checks out. Maybe he should.... trust them. They knew where Hunk was so it seemed like he'd have to go along with it.

The larger merman spoke next, "Our theory is, the queen controls minds by using her voice to strike certain head switches in your ear pan."  
"And her magnetic stare locks on to your eye-to-brain pathway plug." Plaxum he thought her name was.

"Plus, her mind-control sonar is always broadcasting through the waters. Bong! Bong! Bong!" He was starting to realize why there are so few of them, although they seem like good crack.

"And She trains her people to use hypnotic movements to lull you under her control."

"I do remember a dancer!", he replied enthusiastically.

"Good, because I haven't finished my picture for that one." Blumfump began gathering all his drawings, "But you see, she was infecting your brain!"

"Holy crow! I had a mind-controlling brain infection!" Okay. Yeah, he was definately starting to believe them.

Plaxum brought him towards a large clam which she opened and then pushed him towards, "Sit." She commanded.

Swirn began measuring his head while Blumfump explained the situation.

"The entire village is under the Queen's mind control. The only reason we aren't is because we wear these jellyfish that hide our brains from her powers. It's like we have no brains whatsoever. You can't control what doesn't exist."

"Right. Of course."

"Our heads are completely empty."

"Yeah, I get it."

'Your head will always be empty or at least that's what your teammates think.'

"Many years ago, the Queen froze over the surface by blocking the thermal vents. She forced everyone to the depths, where she began to brainwash them. They became her prisoners."

"What size?" -Plaxum  
" Eight and seven-eighths aquameters." -Swirn

"But what's the point?"  
'To living. Why carry on?'  
"Why mind control the mermaids?"

"To kill them!"  
"Really?"  
"Well, we don't know that for sure, but hundreds of mermaids have disappeared and never come back."

That would make sense. But why?

"We've tried to take out the Queen, but failed several times. And every attempt depletes our numbers. Now, there are only three of us left. Without you, there is no hope."- Swirn

"Found one." Plaxum  
"What do you want from me?"  
'Hunk would have been a better choice.'  
"We saw the mer-cat you came in. We think it can stand up against the Queen and her forces. But first, you'll need one of these." Blumfump gestures towards one of the jellyfish-like creatures.

'They don't want you. They want Blue. Just like your so called friends.'

"Now they sting pretty bad and don't smell great." Plaxum said as she floated ready to put it on him.  
"If my theory is correct, the smelliest ones block the most mind-control rays." Blumfump said, with a similar curious tone to the one Pidge has whenever she tells us about one of her ideas.  
"Are you a scientist?" He asked, mildly curious about what kind of energy they would use to power their technology.  
"No." 

'Okay. Pidge, I'm sorry, I'll never compare you to a crazy merperson again.'

"Also, they can sometimes make your face swell, and you might experience hearing loss." 

'I'm gonna die here.'

"Would you just put on already?" He was not appreciating all the anticipation.

As soon as it touched his head, a strong burning sensation covered his face.  
"It burns!"  
"That means it's working!"  
He could already feel the swelling. 

'Dios, I hope this is worth it.'

"So what's the plan?"


	3. Chapter 3

"That's a turtle? But there's an actual turtle right here."

"We needed the turtle to play the wall. If your acting fails you, this holds three doses of antidote to use on the guards. It should interrupt the queen's mind-control long enough for you to escape."

"I don't think I'll be needing this. I missed 14 days of the third grade for a stomachache I never really had."  
'A possibly more impressive feat would be me keeping up this happy facade up almost constantly since I first started learning English. Not like they would care anyway.'

——————-timeskip—————————

Lance approached the guards, making sure to keep my action as carefree as possible.

"Hello, mer-guards! Isn't everything just so safe and warm here? Anyway, I'm off to my lion." Before he could react, they'd lunged forward and grabbed him.

They easily dragged him to the throne room, ignoring his cries of protest. Eventually coming to a stop and shoving him before the queen.

"I had a feeling you'd come for your vessel. Servant, take Lance to the Baku Garden." Lance turned, seeing a door open, revealing his yellow friend.

"Hunk?"

His eyes seemed distant like he couldn't really see what was going on. He drifted forward slowly towards him.  
"Hey, buddy, it's me!"  
He reached forward trying to latch onto him.  
"Snap out of it! It's lance!"  
He had already started pushing him forward. Lance quietly groaned. Nothing he was saying was getting to him. 

Quickly he spun around, grabbing the pufferfish thing from him waist aiming to blow a dose into Hunks face to bring him to his senses. But as he turned around to squirt it at him, he made a grab for Lance, knocking the fish out of his hands.  
"Darn it!"  
The fish drifted away. Lance pushed of the sea floor propelling himself upwards, while Hunk was still fumbling around below him.  
"Everyone, capture him!"  
The armed mer guards seemed to be having less trouble maneuvering than Hunk and were already making their way up to him. The Blue paladin began desperately feeling around the ceiling until he noticed a 'lamp', he ripped the head off and threw it like a frisbee at the mermen.

It didn't go as planned. 

It basically just floated.

The guards the tried to jump him but he dove under them, propelling himself towards the pufferfish. He grabbed it, laughing like a maniac. He didn't notice Hunk tackling him until they were hurtling through the water. He wriggled free and grabbed the fish again, suddenly feeling the pressure of someone grabbing his leg, just like HE used to.  
He turned to see Hunk, who then proceeded to swing and throw him across the room. He then sped towards him at a terrifying speed and smashed him into a rocky pillar.

Once again he dropped the fish.

Lance tried to swim towards it but Hunk slammed him back into the wall.  
"Hunk, please! I don't want to hurt you!"  
"Must keep Queen safe and warm." He responded with a robotic voice.

Lance gulped and kicked into his suit's belt, causing him to hurtle backwards into the two guards, who were quickly catching up.

Lance heard a squeak as the pufferfish hit the floor. He dashed towards it, being tackled away again at the last moment by Hunk. As soon as his feet touched the ground, he pushed off towards the fish, this time with the jellyfish on his face being caught in Hunk's strong hands.  
He felt his head being jerked backwards so he kicked his feet at the fish, managing to angle it so that it hit Hunk in the face, erupting with a cloud of the gas spreading out with a squeak.

"Whoa! Whoa! Where am I? What am I doing? Is that a jellyfish on your head?" Hunk shook his head, clearly confused.  
"Hunk, you've been mind-controlled by the Queen and you're trying to kill me."  
Lance says, while he grabbed his shoulders.  
"Oh, really? Sorry. My bad."  
"We're kind of in the middle of a battle. So, I'm going to need your help."  
"Got it."

The two of them sped towards their lions but before they could get in them, they were surrounded by guards.  
Before they could make a move, one of the guards was hit in the face with another pufferfish. A horn sounded and they turned to see Plaxum, Swirn and Blumfump attacking the guards.

Using the three of them as a distraction, Lance leapt forward and used his boosters to knock out one of the guards and take their spear.

"Now, who are these weirdos?" Hunk asked apprehensively.  
"Those weirdos are with us."  
"Come, we must hurry to your mer-cats."-Plaxum

Inside blue, Lance dashed to activate Blue's systems, "You hanging on?" He asked Plaxum, who's currently hiding in Blue's mouth.  
"Yes. Let's go!"  
"What's the plan?"  
"We need to grab the Queen and take her to an ice prison Blumfump built, where her mind-control powers will be trapped because of the thick ice and the jellyfish."  
"Okay, who's that?" Hunk- Lance had forgotten how much he missed.  
"It's Plaxum, just go with it."  
"There she is!"

After we grabbed the Queen, we found out it was some sort of creature in the Baku garden that was controlling everyone. Once we had beaten it we landed by the castle to talk to the queen about finding our friends.  
"There is a mer-cat in our system that appears to be heading our way."  
"It's the green lion."  
"See, Hunk? I told you they could help us. Now, the next time I go swimming after a mermaid, I hope you won't be complaining the whole time."

"Lesson learnt. Well, I'm going to go meet up with pidge, so I'll leave lance to say his goodbyes."  
"Sure, see you Hunk."  
Hunk clumsily swam towards the yellow lion while Lance turned to the Queen.  
"Well, I was glad I could help out. It was lovely meeting you, your highness, I hope you'll consider joining voltron to fight against the Galra."  
"I would love to and I must say I'm happy I managed to meet such a rare species as your own."  
"Well I wouldn't say Humans are rare, although it's true that they haven't really travelled much of space yet."  
"I was talking about your Altean blood. Altean hybrids were rare even in the past when Alteans were widespread throughout the universe. I can tell you aren't completely the same species as your friend."  
"Wait...and how would you know that?"  
"My people have the ability to see a person's quintessence. Alteans usually have a similar amount to you, although your ears are different and you have no markings so I assumed you must be a hybrid. It's most likely how we knew you were here, although I am not completely sure about that seen as my memories have not completely returned yet."  
"But you don't know for certain?"  
"No. It's possible that you just an abnormally high amount of quintessence for your species. Perhaps take a DNA test of some kind when you get back to your people."  
"Um yeah. I-I might try that"

————————timeskip———————

keith was pacing around Shiro's pod, thinking about Shiro's 'request'.  
He wanted him to lead voltron. Um... no..?  
He couldn't. He wasn't nearly as strong as Shiro, he was too reckless and hotheaded, and he couldn't even get a single one of the others to follow an orders without getting frustrated and yelling. He couldn't lead voltron. End. Of. Story.

The ravenet jumped as Hunk pulled him into a hug, 'damn that guy hugs hard.'  
He half expected Lance, Pidge maybe even Coran to join in on the hug as well but they all seemed preoccupied. Coran was checking Shiro's vitals and trying (and failing) to keep his equipment away from the mice. Pidge was smuggling food into a small bag thinking that no one was watching her (He hoped she wasn't thinking about leaving again) . Allura was asleep in her room, much to her own dissatisfaction, and Lance was stood by the wall, watching the floor as if it was the most interesting thing he'd ever seen. He had his arms crossed tightly and was chewing his lip, one of his telltale signs that's he's thinking hard about something.

He was gonna kill for some chapstick later.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally first Keith POV. Honestly that took way longer than I thought it would.  
> I've already written a lot of this on wattpad so this is basically just a redone version.


	4. Chapter 4

"When did you two get back?" Keith asked Lance and Hunk, he expected Lance to answer with something like 'how could you miss my beautiful face?' Or 'miss me, Mullet' but no.  
Instead Hunk answered.  
"A few minutes ago. We both said hi when we first came in but I guess you didn't notice 'til I hugged ya, right?"  
"Hm, yeah. Sorry." He really did feel guilty now, is that why Lance seems out of it, cause he ignored him?

He shook his head, deciding to find out later.

"Hey, Coran, how much longer?"  
"At least 6 varga, number four. You might as well all go rest, I'll come get you when he's on his last varga."

The four of them all looked reluctant to leave.  
"I think I'll stay here-" Keith started.  
"No, he's right. We don't know the next time we'll actually manage to get any sleep after this." Lance. Okay, now he was really curious about what happened to those two.

"Lance, the rest of us have stuff to do we can't-", Pidge piped up, honestly, Keith was starting to think she lived on caffeine.  
"I don't like it, but- he has a point. Come on Pidge, at least get something to eat." Hunk ruffled her hair, much to her annoyance.

Pidge reluctantly agreed as Hunk basically carried her to the kitchen. Lance fidgeted for a few seconds, watching Shiro's pod.  
"Come on, Mullet. I know you want to stay but it won't help at all."  
He wouldn't admit it but he knew Lance was right.

"I'll sleep if you tell me what happened with you and Hunk."  
"You know I'll end telling you later anyway, right?"  
"I know. I meant- ..are you okay?"  
He looked surprised, almost relived for a second but then it was covered by his cute smirk.  
"Aww you worried bout me, Keithy?"  
Keith squirmed at the nickname.  
"I- wh- you just.. I don't know you seemed off before. I don't know. ...Maybe I was."  
Lance cocked his head to the side,  
"You was what?"  
Keith honestly couldn't tell if he was feigning innocence or not.  
"...worried." He muttered, Keith could feel a light blush spreading across his light features, curse his pale skin.

Lance giggled. Keith looked up at him, expecting some sort of mocking comment. Instead he was met with a warm smile. It looked far more natural on his face than his usual expression, that worried him for a tick before deciding to think about it later. 

"You know, it's fine to admit you were worried. I was worried about you too, even though I know there was no reason to."  
He turns towards the door and the pauses to look back at Keith expectantly.  
"Well come on then, you wanted me to tell you right?"

Keith felt a small smile grace his features as he caught up with him.

Well this is new.  
A whole on going conversation with non other than Keith Kogane without a single argument. It's nice.

They were walking towards their rooms. Lance knew he probably wasn't going to sleep. If anything he'd spend the next hour or so making sure everyone else was asleep then maybe listen to music and wallow in self-hate.  
Or alternatively he could ask Coran for a DNA test. Maybe not. Maybe he should just talk to blue.

"-ance? Lance? You still there?"  
"Hm? Oh sorry Keef?"  
"You feeling okay? Are you sick?"  
He reached out to feel Lance's face.  
"Okay you have a bit of a temperature, do you have a headache or any other symptoms?"  
"No, I rarely get sick I'm probably just overheating. It was pretty cold down there."  
This seemed to peak Keith interest. He gently moved his hand down back to his side.  
"Where were you? What was it like?"  
"I think it might have been called Baku but I'm not sure. It was an ice planet with a water layer and then the crust started. Oh and guess the best part!"  
"What?"  
"There were mermaids! Real life freaking mermaids! They were so cool and the colors! ¡Oh meu dios! They were gorgeous!"  
"Damn I-I actually wish I got stuck with you now. That sounds so cool. Damn so mermaids are real."  
He stopped causing Lance to look back at him. Keith's hair was messy from being in his helmet for so long but his eyes shone curiously.  
"What? Why'd you stop?"  
"Hm oh my rooms here. So... yeah."  
"Oh. Well. Night then."  
Lance felt an odd sinking feeling, being with Keith was fun even if it was a bit awkward at first.  
"G'night."  
"Wait- actually. Lance?"  
"Yeah?"  
"Do you think we could go back there at some point? ...I really want to see.."  
Lance felt his lips twitch up into a small smile. "Yeah..yeah. We'll see."  
And with a wave from Keith as he slipped into his room, lance noticed that the nagging empty feeling was still there but less noticeable.  
"Maybe I will sleep a bit."

As the door closed, Keith made his way to his bathroom, where he slipped out of his clothes and into the shower. It felt good, he imagined this was part of the reason lance took such good care of his skin. So he could feel clean and fresh as much as possible.

Walking with lance had, truthfully, lessened some of his worries. Lance was usually the one he struggled with the most and it had turned out fine. So maybe he could handle it.  
Nope.  
That was a lie. He knew for a fact that if he did become the black paladin because something had happened to Shiro, then he'd be too busy grieving to actually take his job. He couldn't do it.

He turned off the shower, resting his head against the tiled wall. Stepping out of the shower and over his clothes, he made his way to the draws in his room. There wasn't much in them. Just some spare clothes, although Coran and Lance were talking about having a competition of sorts to make everyone some new clothes.  
The idea sent shivers down his spine. He didn't know how good either of them were at that sort of thing but if it was anything like Coran's cooking, he thought he at least had the right to be a little worried.  
Slipping into a fresh T-shirt and boxers he climbed into bed. Despite all the thoughts plaguing his mind he managed to slip into a dreamless and restful sleep.


	5. Chapter 5

"Paladins, report to the med-bay! Number one's on his last varga!"

Keith rolled out of bed, unusually well refreshed. He yawned, arching his back and stretching his arms. A small smile stretched over his face at the thought of Shiro waking up.

After pulling his dark clothes on, he began to make his way to the med-bay.

"Am I the first here?" He asked Coran, who stood eating from a bowl of food goo next to Allura at a console.  
"Hunk and Pidge stopped by a few minutes ago and left to get some food for everyone." Allura answered, not even looking up at him.  
"What about Lance? He's not still asleep is he?" The idea of Lance sleeping through Shiro waking up annoyed him to say the least,  
"Oh no. Number three is just on his way back from the hangers." Coran said while twirling his mustache, absentmindedly.

'Why was he there? Wasn't he the one that insisted on us getting some sleep?'

Keith was interrupted from his thoughts by Hunk, Pidge and Lance's arrival. They all looked more refreshed except Lance, who seemed about the same as before, although he had changed back into his usual clothes which now looked slightly damp.

"Oh, hey Keith! Want some breakfast?"  
Hunk cheerfully asked, a large, gentle smile brightening the room.  
Keith couldn't help but briefly smile back and accept the bowl he had been offered.

Their attention was once again drawn to Shiro in his pod as the heard soft whimpering and grunting.  
"Is he okay?" Hunk asked, concerned.  
"Sometimes, the healing process can cause involuntary brain wave reactions." Allura answered, still hunched over the console.  
"Looks like he's having a bad dream." Hunk stated, clearly not at all relieved by Allura's explanation.

"He just got blasted by a space witch and mauled by giant lizards. What dream could be worse than that?" Keith answered, not taking his eyes off Shiro.

"I'm sure he's fine, Hunk. He'll come out any second now, you could ask him then if you want." Lance offered looking up at his concerned friend from his seat on the steps.

Almost as he finished saying that, a familiar beep was heard from the pod as it opened. A cold and unsteady Shiro stumbled out into Hunk's ready arms.

He lingered in the embrace, seemingly gathering his bearings.  
"M-my arm. Co-ordinates. We need to find them."  
"What? What do we need to find?" Keith asked, unfolding his arms to lay them at his sides.

"I remember. How I escaped. There was a galra... Ulaz. He freed my and gave me coordinates to help me find him."

————————time skip———————

"We should get out of here. We've checked it out, but now, it's time to move on." Allura urged from her place at the center of the room.

"No. There must be something more to this. I can feel it. I think we should wait." Shiro commanded.

Lance sat in his own seat towards the back of the bridge. His thoughts kept drifting back to his time spent cleaning Blue earlier.

He had talked to her about the possibility of him being Altean.

He was worried and confused. He understood that he was still the same person, nothing really had changed but he couldn't shake the feeling that if it really was true that the others might not see that way. He didn't want them to think he was a liar, although it wasn't too far from the truth. He did keep up a facade around them most of the time, and he had already lied about his childhood but Hunk knew the truth and went along with it, so maybe it wouldn't be so bad.

But how would it even be possible. The rest of the Alteans had died thousands of years ago. It wasn't possible.

Talking to Blue had eased his worries and had told him that she had something she had to show him later. That had peaked his curiosity and was keeping him restless. He'd currently taken to rapping quietly at his console.

His thoughts had kept wandering and his head ran through all the way it could be possible only to be interrupted by a harsh red flashing appearing across all their screens.

"There is an intruder in the castle!" Coran proclaimed, always with his dramatic flare.  
"How could someone just sneak aboard the ship?" Lance wondered aloud.  
"I knew coming here was a mistake! There he is. Level five." Allura angrily declared,  
"Everyone, suit up!" Shiro ordered as they scrambled towards their suits.

————————————————————

Keith pulled his smooth armor over his black under-armor. He scrambled out the door the catch up with the others.

Lance, Shiro and Pidge had already left and begun their patrol of the fifth floor. Hunk was still pulling his armor on, Coran was in the control room watching through the cameras and Allura seemed to have joined the others on their search.

Tearing through corridoor after corridor, Keith was starting to get a little lost.

Despite all the months they'd already spent on the ship, Keith was still no closer to being able to successfully navigate throughout the whole ship. In fact he doubted he'd ever even been on this floor before now.

He'd taken to wandering blindly while listening to the others through the comms. The silence was broken by Lance, as usual.

"I got him." -lance  
"Keep eyes on him, Lance. We're all headed toward you." -Shiro  
Keith started toward Lance's location, which Coran had sent them, along with, much to Keith's relief, a map of the floor.  
"Hold it right there!"  
He could still hear Lance over the comms along with light pants from the other paladins, who, judging by the sound, must have started running as well.

"Careful, he's faster than an angry klanmuïrl! But he can jump like a sprightly globinheffer!"

'Great now Coran's commentating.'

"Coran, you're not helping!" Keith had grown slightly worried when he started hearing the shooting from Lance's end but hearing Lance's response was relieving.

"Somebody's as mad as a wet chaïper. Coming your way, Number Five!"

"I got him! I don't got him!" Pidge yelped,  
"He's dragging Pidge away!"  
"Come back here!", Keith could practically feel the glare he knew pidge was making right now.  
More gunshots sounded but they were harder and louder than Lance's so Keith guessed Hunk must've come across him.  
"Hunk!"  
"Huh? Sorry!"  
"Oh, Hunk failed the team, guys."  
"Hey!"  
"All right, it's up to Keith now."  
'Great. Just great.'  
Keith looked up from his map getting into a fighting stance and activating his bayard.

"Copy that. I'm ready."


	6. Chapter 6

"Copy that. I'm ready."  
Keith activated his bayard and began running in the direction the intruder was coming from.

"Oh, this is exciting! He's got a sword. One young paladin, one seemingly indestructible foe."  
'Lance was right, that isn't helping.'  
Keith spotted him immediately and rushed at him, missing and having to skid before turning back around and continuing the pursuit.

"Swing and a miss! Oh, another swing and a miss!" Coran narrated as keith's anger grew. After the second miss, Keith has to skid around another corner.  
"He can't touch him! He's too fast!"  
Keith was now keeping pace with Pidge, who was still sliding along the floor. After a quick nod from the her friend, Pidge firmly planted her feet on the ground forcing the intruder to slow down.

Keith raced forward, gaining on his target. He leapt at the wall using it to jump down on his opponent however his finishing strike was successfully blocked by his foes own blade.

Grunting with the effort, Keith looked over their blade, hoping to find some sort of weakness, but was (literally) disarmed when he saw the familiar marking on the blades hilt.

"He knocked his bayard out of his hands! It's on the ground!"  
The sinking feeling in Lance's chest grew, causing him to speed up, hoping to be at least some use to his fighting friends.

He bumped into Hunk at the last corner, he seemed to have taken some sort of shortcut, and now the two of them hurtled towards the final turn, which they could hear their friends fighting behind.

Once they reached the turning point, he and Hunk were literally thrown off their feet by a certain mullet, pushing them to the ground.

The three of them leapt to their feet just in time to see Shiro and the intruder both ready to deal the final blow.

The atmosphere remained tense, even after the intruder yielded to their leader. "Ulaz?" Shiro asked quietly, seemingly in disbelief. The name seemed familiar to Lance and it honestly annoyed him that he wasn't better with names.

The confusion was quickly cleared up after Allura appeared out of nowhere, apparently about to assault this guy when Shiro explains that he was the guy that saved him.

Allura insisted on chaining Ulaz's hands and feet before they led him to the living room area.  
'Bit of a weird place to bring a 'prisoner' but whatever'

"I don't think this is necessary." Shiro said, his disappointed dad voice coming through.  
"I will not have some quiznak-ing Galra soldier on the bridge of my ship!"

"If I wanted to kill you, you'd be dead already." Lance started to zone out after that. It wasn't that he wasn't interested or didn't think it was important. He just couldn't suppress the negative thoughts filling his head.

'Useless.'  
'You found him first. If you'd just managed to hit him, at least once, then you could've stopped him.'  
'Your so weak.'  
'What if he hurt one of the others because of your failure.'  
'All you had to do was stop him, but you couldn't even do that right.'  
'Like usual Shiro had to clean up your mess for you.'

Lance shook his head, trying to clear away the thoughts. He needed to pay attention. He needs to stop messing up and being such as a burden.

"When you released me, you also mentioned that there were others working with you." Apparently Lance hadn't missed much. No one had seemed to notice the empty expression he wore and quickly corrected to a more serious focused one.

'Of course they didn't. Why would they care enough to pay attention to you. Stop being so needy.'

"Yes. We are called the Blade of Marmora."  
"Uh, others? Are they here?" Hunk whimpered, shuddering noticeably.  
Lance switched into his more jokey personality, "Hunk, can you try not to act so scared around the chained-up prisoner? It makes us seem a little lame."  
"I am alone on this base."

'Even your chained up prisoner won't even pay attention to you.'

Lance frowned at that. Why would he care if a random prisoner payed attention to him or not.

'Because your just an annoying attention seeker. I'm surprised I had to be the one to tell you that. Oh wait, that's a lie, I'm not surprised the dumbest paladin needs these things explained to him.'

"Coran, are you hearing this?"  
Lance snapped back to reality at Allura's stern tone.  
"I am picking up some kind of anomaly on the screen. I suppose it could be a cloaked base." -Coran  
"Just fly straight for the center of the xanthorium cluster. You will see." -Ulaz  
"You think you're going to get me to destroy our ship just because you say so?" -Allura  
"We came out here to find some answers. Are we going to turn back now?" -Shiro  
'We could turn back now. This honestly just feels like a bad idea.'  
"You know I trust you, Shiro, but this doesn't feel right."

Keith.  
'Thank the lord of mullets for that. Shiro would listen to Keith, right?'

Lance smiled internally.  
"And you know I hate to agree with Keith, but it's a big fat ditto for me."

"Galra could have implanted fake memories of the escape in your head."-Pidge  
"Oh, come on, that would be so evil, which, of course, they are. But they'd have to come up with some molecular level storage unit, which his hand does have. But, to be linked up to memory, it would need a direct pathway to his brain, which yeah."  
Hunk.  
'Buddy, you tried but there's no getting around the fact that this just seems like a bad idea.'

"Ulaz freed me. Without him, we wouldn't be here."  
"Fine. Slow and steady, Coran. Head for the xanthorium cluster."

'Are you kidding me!? SIMP!! Do our opinions mean nothing?'

'More like your opinion means nothing. This is your fault. Shiro and Allura would have listened to the other three. You ruined it.'

'That....sounds about right.'  
"Well, that's something." Coran exclaimed over the comm system.  
"What is it?"  
"Putting it up on the screens."  
"Amazing. They're folding space." Pidge's eyes shone, definitely nothing like Blumfump when he talked about his strange theories. Thinking back on it the voice Blumfump used was probably more similar to Keith's whenever he talked about something he was interested in.

"Welcome to the Blade of Marmora Communications Base Thaldycon. Now, if you'll free me, I need to send a message to the leadership. They need to know I've made contact with Voltron." Ulaz stood, waiting patiently for someone to free him from his cuffs.  
"Go with him and keep an eye on him. I'm staying here."  
"Oh! Can we go?" Hunk seemed excited at the prospect of the 'space taco.' If he figured out a way to make actual space tacos Lance certainly wouldn't complain.  
"I want to see how they make the space pocket!" Pidge's curiosity easily showed in her voice. She was by far one of the easiest of Lance's team members for him to read.  
"You guys go ahead. I'll hang back and protect the princess."

'Like you could even protect yourself.'

Allura groaned but lance didn't really even feel that hurt. His small crush on the princess had faded after the reality of their situation sunk in. He'd always known she wasn't on his level in the first place so it didn't hurt too much to give up on her.

He still flirted of course but it was mainly just as a way to relieve stress and out of habit.

The four paladins and Ulaz were crammed into the Red lion listening to Ulaz talk about the Blade of Marmora while Keith piloted.  
"This is the gravity generator that creates the space-time fold that hides the station. It was created by a reclusive genius engineer named Slav. His technology allows the Blade of Marmora to remain hidden while we work to take down the Galra Empire. Zarkon would do anything to get his hands on this technology."  
"There are Galra out there that aren't loyal to Zarkon?" If Keith was right in his suspicion then he needed to atleast try to find some positives.

"We thought expanding the Galra Empire would bring stability. We learned too late, a tyrant doesn't seek stability, only power. With our members working on the inside, planning coordinated attacks with Voltron, we may finally have a chance."

The Red lion had landed at the base and the five of them were now standing in a control room of sorts.  
"So, you have agents working within Zarkon's ranks?" Hunk hopefully asked.  
"How do you think you got away from Zarkon in that last fight? Do you think those shields around Zarkon's command center went down on their own? We've got people risking their lives in this war, just like you."

Ulaz seemed quite defensive on the matter, which made sense given the prejudice he'd already faced from Allura.  
"If you have people on the inside, can they tell me where my family is? They were taken the same time Shiro was." Pidge sounded almost desperate, sometimes Keith forgot how young she was.  
It wasn't fair that she had to go through any of this. She probably had the best chance out of all of them at a normal care free life, but the war had taken that from her.

As Ulaz talked, Keith couldn't help but stare at the blade on his back. After he had finished and Pidge had been distracted by the data he provided, he decided to ask.  
"What's that weapon you carry?"  
Ulaz turned to look at him while he revealed the dark blade for them all the to see.  
"It's a ceremonial blade that each member of our order carries."

'Great. That makes it pretty clear then.'

"Hmm, nice. Huh?"  
Keith looked at the screens, surprised as they flashed in alarm.  
"Oh, no! You were tracked!"  
"What? Us?"  
Keith looked at him anger boiling at the accusation, "If Zarkon knows we're here, it's because you ratted us out."

————time skip———————————

"Form Voltron!"  
"We're exposed! The space fold has been lowered!"  
"Well, there goes Ulaz." Coran tone was hard to describe but he certainly wasn't impressed.  
"I knew we should never trust a Galra!"

The team felt a spark of worry and fear from one of the paladins, in the state they were in, it was hard to tell who's feelings were whose.

None of them would have expected it to be from the hotheaded red paladin who was silently going over the possibilities of what could happen if his theory was right.

'Would they be scared of me? Are they already scared of me? Sometimes I've seen them flinch when I yell... no... no. I don't want to mess this up.'

Shiro, sensing his teammates discomfort, decided to jump into action, "Let's light this thing up. Fire lasers!"  
Pidge and Keith fired on his command both hitting their mark and feeling a wave of confidence and accomplishment drown out the worry.  
"Huh?"  
The team looked through the dispersing cloud to see the robeast appearing completely unscathed.

The robeast continued to draw in the xanthorium clusters and firing at them until it eventually drew them in.

They were stuck. The beast was attempting to suck them into its mouth however they were too big so they were stuck at a standstill.  
"I'll make him back off!", Keith stabbed the beast with a small knife rather than voltron's usual sword.

After realizing what he'd done, Keith sent small waves of confusion, fear and disgust into the rest of the paladins minds only to be met with more confusion from the other paladins.  
Along with a small wave of affection and admiration which only confused Keith even more.

The fight only got more intense from there eventually ending with Ulaz sacrificing himself to save them.  
As the reality of what had happened sunk in, Keith felt familiar feelings of regret, guilt and sorrow being reciprocated by his fellow paladins.

After talking to Shiro about Ulaz's sacrifice, Keith retreated to his room where he unwrapped his knife and just stared. Wishing that what he was seeing was somehow some sort of trick.

The knife was all he had left of his parents, other than the few belongings that were left behind in his shack. For his parents to have it would mean that they either came in contact with the galra in some way or actually were Galra.

Even the possibility scared Keith. 

What scared Keith possibly more than the idea of his new family rejecting was the chance that his few memories of his dad being ruined.

'I don't want to be alone again. I don't want them all to leave me. Why can't things just go my way for once? Am I cursed? Is this always going to happen to me? What if-

His thought were cut short but a playful knocking at his door. Keith scrambled to put the knife away before opening the door to reveal a smiling Lance.  
His hair looked slightly messier than usual but Keith wasn't complaining.  
"Um, hey Lance. Did you need something?" Keith as softly, he didn't really want to be left alone with his thoughts right now but he also wasn't in the mood to argue with Lance either, even if it was usually playful.

"Yeah, I need you, silly." Lance said with a smug grin, gently looking over his face.  
"You- what?"  
"Shiro's sending us on a supply run remember. Come on mullet, I thought you payed better attention than that."

Keith scowled but followed Lance down the corridor. He always seemed to show up when he needed a distraction. Lance, Hunk and Keith were all piled into the Blue lion. After their last encounter with one of haggars ro-beasts, the ship needed some repairs. Unfortunately they lacked the supplies necessary for all of them.

Coran had told them about a small market planet nearby them where they'd be able to find the parts.

The market was in an underwater city surrounded by a bubble- like barrier. It allowed all ships in and out but since they needed to be quick they decided to take the Blue lion seen as it travelled the fastest underwater.  
Hunk had been sent to make sure they had all the right repair parts as he and Coran were their resident engineers while Keith has been sent to make sure they didn't get into trouble, although Lance thought that couldn't be all there was to it given his 'behavioral problems' at the garrison.

Lance had been flying for the past 20 minutes and was starting to feel a little bored.  
Behind him, Hunk was sat on the floor going over the small list of parts they needed, although it looked more like he was just staring into empty space. While Keith sat curled up against the end corner of the control panel. He looked like he was drifting off.

Lance smiled to himself. Keith really does remind him of a cat sometimes.

He felt Blue purr at the thought, lance chuckled causing Keith to look up at him, a sleepy but suspicious look on his face.

"What's so funny?" Keith asked raising an eyebrow. Hunk looked up, his mediator instincts kicking in as he glanced wearily between us.

"Mm nothing important. Blue just thought something weird." She purrs knowingly, as Lance turned back to the controls.

The three of them landed at the outskirts of the market. They wore their everyday clothes so they wouldn't gain as much unwanted attention.

They had no trouble locating the majority of the parts, until they were only left with a couple.

"These last two should be together really. Let's try that place."  
Lance couldn't see where Hunk was pointing so he just tried to stick as close to the other two as possible.

It didn't exactly go as planned.

At some point in the crowd, Lance had been knocked over into some sort of lamp. When he looked up again he couldn't see either of his friends.

He saw a brief flash of white and red and pushed after it only to find it was just a random red alien in white ripped clothing, kinda like ripped jeans on earth.

Stumbling through the crowd was starting to slowly make Lance panic. With his friends, he felt grounded. But now he just felt surrounded. Like the crowd was pressing into him.

He needed to get out.  
Now.

After buying the final parts, Hunk suggested they go get something to eat to celebrate.  
Keith eagerly agreed.

Sure he liked Hunk's cooking but food goo can only get you so far.

Hunk had quickly picked out a place, Keith suspected he'd been planning this all along, and turned to ask their opinions when his face dropped.

"What?" Keith asked in confusion. Is something wrong? Fuck, are the Galra here?

"...Where's lance?"

Keith looked around in surprise. Hadn't he just been here. Okay, this is worse than a Galra attack. How long had he been gone?

The two of them began to search around, making sure to stay close the whole time. It had been nearly ten minutes now. Hunk was panicking to say the least.

After stumbling around blindly for a good five minutes or so, Lance had found his way into a large shop.

The counter looked like the kind you'd have at cinemas on earth. The room he was in was small dark and carpeted and instead of an alien waiting to serve him at the counter, there stood a robot.

After Lance had regained his composure, he slowly took his weight off of the wall he had been leaning on and made his way to the counter.

"How may I assist you?" The robot automatically chattered.

"Can you tell me where I am please?" Lance was still quite worried but he realized that to find his friends he'd need to focus.  
"You are located at the universal records office. The fee for using the records stands at one Gac per dobashe."

This peaked Lance's interest. It could have records on the Galra here. He could really help the team.

He fumbled around in his pocket. Coran had allowed them all a small allowance that they could spend on their selves if they find something that interested them and this certainly fit the bill.

"Ten dobashes please."

Lance stepped into the small dark room and began making his way towards the white pedestal that stood in the center of the room.  
He placed his left hand on its cool surface, a gentle calmness flowing over him.

The calmness was broken by a deep voice.  
"Altean hybrid recognized. Fifty percent of the DNA has no documented match. New record made."

Startled, lance looked around trying to figure out where the voice was coming from. Only then did the meaning being the words sink into place.

This record place has just scanned him and recognized him as Altean. The Queen had been right.

'What would the rest of the team think? Hell, what do I think? How was any of this even possible? Had this happened before, a Human-Altean hybrid?'

As if trying to answer his questions, the records system displayed dozens of holograms with information on Altean hybrids from the genetics and physical attributes to the treatment and their rights.  
Lance skipped through them to the document showcasing their treatment from other Alteans.

It wasn't encouraging. From what he read Altean hybrids were seen as 'worthy' as normal Alteans. They still had most of the same rights and there were no laws preventing them from accomplishing any goals they had.

However the documents showed him how hybrids could often be bought and sold and were often used for manual labor, even being taught from a young age that hybrids should join the Altean army as they were meant to be fighters.

The idea worried Lance more than a bit. Coran and Allura were great but maybe that was just cause they thought he was Human. He shivered. Coran, he didn't think would treat him too badly but Allura he had his doubts about. A few weeks ago he would have trusted her, maybe even confided in her as soon as possible. But now, he'd seen how quick she was to misjudge Ulaz even after he sacrificed himself, not to mention she was literally a princess.

He remembered how uptight she was when they'd all first met how she disliked being addressed as anything other than Princess. Whatever customs and prejudice were held against people like him surely would have been ingrained into her mind from a young age.

Lance was too caught up in his thoughts to even notice that the timer had gone off and all the holograms had turned off.

He let out a small sigh when he did.

'Wow leave it to me to be selfish and not look into anything important they could have had on the Galra.'

As he left the records library, Lance began wandering again through the now slightly smaller crowd. He made his way to a large statue and quickly climbed the stone wall next to it.

Standing on top of the wall, Lance could see across the large courtyard- like area. He saw another large crowd at the beginning of another street which he could hear loud, accented, cheering coming from. Deciding to check it out, he made his way towards and through the bustling crowd, coming to a stop behind a small insect-like alien.

Now that he could see what was going on, he really started to question why Shiro thought Keith was more responsible than him.

At the center of the crowd, a large buff brown alien was swinging his 'fists' around trying to hit one speedy Mullet.

Lance groaned internally.  
"I disappear, for what 20 minutes? and this happens! What the fuck?"

"I know right? Same thing happened to me! Kinda. My friend Lance went off and now Keith's doing this!"

"Hunk?", lance looked towards his tall teddy bear friend. He was lent again a narrow alien street lamp, eating what he hoped was the alien equivalent to popcorn. 

"Oh heya Lance. Where'd you go?" Hunk looked at him warmly but also with a hint on worry.  
"Just got lost in the crowd. What's going on with Keith?"  
"He bumped into the guy and neither of them would apologize so now here we are."  
The two of them continued chatting, reminiscing about the fights lance used to get dragged into before they went to the garrison, occasionally cheering for Keith who was whooping the other guys ass like the badass he is.

The fight was cut short when the planets 'police' arrived and the three of them bolted to Blue, Keith and Lance laughing the whole time.


	7. Chapter 7

Once they got back to the castle, Hunk and Keith left the hangar to deliver the parts to Coran while Lance hung back, desperately wanting to talk to Blue.

Checking the corridors to make sure they'd left, Lance practically sprinted to Blue, sitting in front of her cross-legged.  
"Oh dios, what do I do? Blue... I don't..."  
Blue's calming aura enveloped him, her purrs drowning out his thoughts.

"I knew this about you from the start, cub. It changes nothing. I still have something to show you. Perhaps it will answer some of your questions."  
Blue spoke calmly into his mind before leaning her head down, as if on instinct Lance reached out to stroke it only to find himself in complete darkness.

"Blue? Blue.. what's going on?" Lance realized the words weren't actually coming out of his mouth but rather from his mind. He heard them like he heard Blue's thoughts, purrs and emotions.  
"This is the astral plane, my cub. Our bond is strong enough for me to take you here. Here I can show what you want to know."  
"Wait does this mean I'm dead? The astral plane is to do with death right?"  
"No, your body is perfectly fine and I will return your spirit to it after we're done."  
"...Okay. I trust you."

Not a second after he thought it, the scene changed. They were in the castle but it looked newer, more decorated and there was sunlight streaming in through the windows instead of from the artificial lights or the screens.  
They were in the dining room, the chairs were all filled. There were a few Alteans and Galrans but the rest of the races Lance didn't recognize.

One particular Altean caught Lance's interest. He was sat in between Allura's father and a tall blue alien.  
"Blaytz, my original paladin." Blue supplied in response to his thoughts shifting to the blue alien.  
Blaytz and the Altean seemed to be whispering to each other, giggling. It reminded Lance of whenever him and Pidge would gossip at the dinner (although he and Pidge rarely sat next eachother) or even those nerve wracking times when Pidge and Keith decide they want to prank someone.

The Altean was average height, for a human atleast, and had long blueish white hair gently cascading down his back, tied in a loose ponytail.  
His face was what startled Lance the most. It was shockingly similar to his own. Smooth tanned skin, he didn't seem to be wearing any make up, unlike Lance who usually wore it to cover his freckles. His eyes seemed to be glowing with excitement in a blue that matched the markings that lay under his eyes.

"That is Amira, my second paladin."  
"...I'm your third?"  
Blue purred in approval as Lance felt her focus shift.

The scene changed again to show Amira and Alfor walking onto the bridge. They were both in their paladin armor now. Amira clutching the helmet in his hands. Lance thought he looked resigned, as if he was empty. Lance was quick to note the absence of the first blue paladin.  
"You're not really going to fight him are you?" Amira's voice was soft and quite, he looked at Alfor like a child who expected to be scolded.  
"Of course I am." Alfor responded curtly. He looked like he'd been crying. This was probably just after he'd said his goodbyes to Allura and Coran.  
"You won't beat him." Amira seemed to be trying to convince him to stay.

It wasn't working.

"I need you to hide the lions and the castle while I face Zarkon. All the lions will allow you to pilot them except the Black lion, so he must stay in the castle."  
Amira looked at Alfor in sadly, "I'm not going to be able to talk you out of this, am I?"  
"No..... I apologise."  
"What for?"  
"You're my brother...but all I ever did was ignore you and put you down. I...I wish it didn't have to end like this."  
Amira smiled sadly as the scene changed.

This time Lance was in the hangar, in his own body, as he sunk to floor, vaguely wondering when he had stood back up.

///time skip///

"Let's hurry up with these repairs. Zarkon could be here at any moment."  
The five paladins were floating outside the ship, making repairs.  
"Okay, panel's off. Now, what?" Hunk looked to his left, although he couldn't actually see either of the Alteans he was talking to.  
"Very simple. Just loosen the blaxums on the somoflange." Coran chirped.  
"Could you be more specific?"  
"Sorry, Hunk, he means the poklones on the agroclams."  
"No, that doesn't help."  
"Easy, Hunk. I got this."  
He understood some of the things the Alteans were saying, not all, but more than Hunk at least.  
He thought this was a mixture of trying to learn some Altean in his free time and the Altean's natural ability to understand other languages quicker.  
"Uh-oh. That can't be good." The console flashed red.

'Of course you'd be the one to mess it up. What did you expect you really are the most useless paladin.'

"There. Fixed."  
"Well done, Pidge!" Allura sounded proud, 'she'll never sound like that talking about me.'  
"The tech on this ship never ceases to amaze me. It's so mathematically elegant. Its fit is a 100 times more frictionless than any exoskeleton we have on Earth. It's beautiful."  
"It's not a sunset, Pidge." Lance tried to batt away the depreciating thoughts, covering his disappointment in snarky-ness, although he was careful to not make it too rude.  
"You're right. A billion sunsets just happen every day. Some genius engineer actually built this."  
"Kinda looks like a big, delicious curly fry." Hunk murmured, mouth drooling when he was hit by a squishy blue thing.  
"What the? All right, we're prepared for this. Remember your rogue projectile cluster training from the Garrison. First, we need a temporary shelter." Shiro said commandingly, him and Keith already readying their shields.

Only to be hit by the blue stuff from behind.  
"Wha? Oh, sorry, Shiro. I was trying to hit Keith." Lance rambled as another hit his own face.  
"Like that?" Keith said holding another in his hand already, a smug, challenging smirk on his face.

Cute.

"Yeah! Squishy asteroid fight!" Hunk yelled floating about a foot higher than the rest.

The four of them pelted each other while Pidge inspected the spores.  
Lance managed to get the most head shots while Hunk got hit the most since he was offering himself as a shield to Lance.

"I don't think these are asteroids. Coran, I'm going to need a containment unit."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So There's more Altean Lance. Most of you have probably figured out Amira's relation to Lance by now. They'll also be more flashbacks and I want to look into more of the Alteans abilities.


	8. Chapter 8

Keith laid on his bed looking over his knife. His thoughts probably should have been plaguing him of his knife and possibly his heritage but instead he couldn't stop thinking of Lance.

Anything about him.

From the spore fight they'd just had, how relaxed he looked in the water when they were being decontaminated to how his lion had come to earth and drawn him towards her.

His thoughts were interrupted by a knocking. He quickly slid his blade under his pillow in time to see Coran come through the door.

He asked Keith if he'd seen Platt anywhere, Keith honestly couldn't tell any of the mice apart by name so he just answered with a no.

After asking Coran about the Blue lion they were called to Pidge's lab.

She had picked up a distress signal leading them to Olkarion. They'd been there a few hours already and were now on their way to rescuing their king, Lubos.

The yellow, blue, red and black paladins crept towards a room at the end of the hall where they could hear whimpering and sobbing coming from.  
"Betrayal! She loves you!"  
"King Lubos?" Shiro said apprehensively,  
"Yes? Who are you? The jesters I requested?" The king turned around in his seat to face them.  
"Um, we're here to, like, rescue you?"  
Lance also seemed to be confused. He was turned so he could watch the king from the side while keeping his eyes trained on the door.  
Lubos hummed and pressed a button on his armrest.  
The largest wall of the room opened to reveal a line of sentries and a Galran commander.  
"You could have just said, "No, thanks."" Hunk muttered, reading his weapon.  
"Looks like someone came to rescue you, Lubos." The commander sneered.

"You turned your back on your people to save your own skin?" Shiro said in disgust.  
"I'm doing this for my people! They wanted to fight the Galra, but they are too powerful! The Galra could destroy us!"

"So, you helped enslave your people to build some super weapon?"   
'Lance seemed to be controlling his anger quite well, contrasting his fingers readiness at the trigger on his blaster.  
"Don't make me the bad guy! He forced me to do it!"   
"Did he force-feed you, too?"  
Keith smirked inwardly before growling, "You're no king."

Lubos' servant threw him towards Keith, having him forcefully taken hostage.

"Okay, we're walking out of here! Anyone tries to stop us and Lubos gets it!"  
"Whoa, K-Keith! That came out of nowhere!" Lance and the other two paladins stood in shock behind them.

"La-sai, what are you doing?"  
"You betrayed our people. I can't live this lie anymore."  
"You don't want me to hurt your genius engineer, right?"  
"Oh, be my guest. His work is done. The cube is complete."  
"What? But-But I thought we had a deal!" Lubos sniveled in front of Keith.

"Guards, put them all out of their misery."

Before they could the Green lion burst through the wall, taking out all the sentries in one go.

They then delivered Lubos and La-sai back to the other Olkari and hastily formed Voltron to take on the cube.

"It's giving back whatever we fire into it, like Coran's echo cube." -Shiro  
"That's what I was trying to tell you guys! It's learning! Making its own versions of our weapons to use against us!" -Pidge   
"We can't just sit here. We've got to move!" -lance   
"How do we beat it?"- Hunk  
"Maybe, if we form our sword, we can cut through the surface and hack right into the center thinking point place?"

'Why doesn't he contribute to planning more often? He's good at this.' Keith just shrugged it off, "Can't be any worse than what's happening now."  
"Let's do it. Form sword!"

They sliced through the cube only for it to form two cuboids instead.  
"It's still operational! Re-engage!"  
"We did it! They're going down!"  
Again the cube just split into four separate smaller cubes.

"We've got to move! Move! We can't fight them like this! We need to split up! Back into lions!"

"Let's see if I can freeze these guys!"   
Blue shot an ice beam at a cube only for it to be shot back at him, freezing the cockpit. Keith's heart nearly stopped when Blue got hit but was reassured a little when Lance's voice came flooding back through the Comms in stuttering whimpers.

Red shot a fire blast at Blue melting the ice, "Oh- oh. Thanks, Keith."  
"You got it." Blue purred in the back of his head.

"I approve of him, cub."

Lance shook his head. And tuned back into the conversation.

"There doesn't seem to be any way to stop them, but we can't let this weapon get into Zarkon's ha- Pidge!"

Lance turned to see the Green lion being blasted back into the forest. Pidge was probably too preoccupied to answer.

A blur of red to his right brought his attention back to the fight.  
Keith was dodging attacks from all the cubes, occasionally firing back.

The air had become noticeable hotter, even managing to bring Blue's usual cool temperature up.  
"Keith! You need to chill with the fire! Seriously, you'll burn down the whole forest!"  
Keith growled and rolled out of the way of another attack.  
Shiro and Hunk were covering each other against the other two cubes.

Lance was dodging attacks quickly while covering Keith, who was still desperately trying to do some damage to the cubes.

Keith didn't notice the other two cubes coming up behind him past Shiro and Hunk.  
"Keith, watch out!"  
With a growl from Blue, Lance sent a shock wave towards them, sending them crashing into the surrounding mountains and momentarily causing them to stop.  
"What the- thanks Lance!" Keith replied somewhat breathlessly.  
"Woah, Lance! You did that thing again!" Hunk shouted excitedly through the Comms.

Lance smiled proudly to himself for a second before realizing what was going to happen next. He dove away from the shock waves being sent at him and flew somewhat randomly with his hands jerking every now and then due to the shock of cold from before.  
The shocks rippled the water while Blue broke through to dive under for better maneuverability. Lance hoped he might be able to lose the cubes somewhere under water, at least long enough to give the others a chance to recover.

The cubes dove under the water after him, completely getting rid of any hope that they weren't water resistant.

After attempting to outmaneuver them underwater didn't work, he quickly broke the surface flying straight up back to the other three lions, only to be hit by the cubes' attacks again.

Keith, despite being the better pilot out of the four of them, was also quickly being overwhelmed and running out of unpredictable moves. Attempting to surprise them again, he barrow rolled past one attack and then dived straight down only to be hit by an attack Hunk had barely managed to dodge.   
Red crashed sideways into Blue, knocking them both down. The black and yellow paladins paused to check if the other two were alright however the distraction caused them to also get knocked out of the sky.

Long story short, Pidge saved the day with Greens root attacks and the Olkari took back their planet and joined the coalition.

The paladins returned to the castle tired and frustrated. Annoyingly, that was beginning to become a common occurrence.


	9. Chapter 9

"Zarkon! How did he find us?" Allura exclaimed as they all ran to their stations.  
"His commanders must have radioed him from Olkarion." Keith offered, his voice gravelly from tiredness.  
"We need to wormhole, now! Everyone to your stations. We've got to put some distance between us and Zarkon. This could be the fight of our lives." Shiro ordered.  
"That's sure a lot of fighters." Keith couldn't tell if hunk sounded scared or not with his wondering focus.

"Allura, can you evade these fighters? We can't have them following us through the wormhole." -Shiro

"I can try."

"Keith, Lance, let's lay down some covering fire." The three of them activated their defense drones taking out as many fighters as they could.

"Lance, incoming, 12 o'clock high!" Pidge shouted from across the room.

"Got it! Hey!" Keith's drone pushed lance's to the side and took out the fighter instead.  
"Sorry! Gotta be quick!"

"How's that for quick?" Lance growled as he pushed him back.

"You..." the two of them now banging into each other at a constant rate.

"Knock it off, you two! Stay in your zones!" Shiro shouted from the helm.

"Yeah, Keith!" Keith felt a little more energetic from the encounter with lance and got back to his task.

"Keep calling out those fighters, Pidge. Hunk, how are the defenses holding?"

"I don't know. Ten percent? Fifteen maybe? Everything's a blur. I've been up too long. I have tired eyes!"

"I know we just came off an intense battle, but we've got to stay focused, just until we jump."

"And when is that?" Keith growled his anger returning quicker than usual.

"They're still too close! We need to gain more speed!" Coran chirped from the front."

"I've got an idea! Hold on!"

"Allura, what are you doing?"

"I'm going to use this moon's gravity to gain speed and put some distance between us and Zarkon."

"We're clear to wormhole!"

"We got away from Zarkon, how come we're still on alert?" Lance piped up, Keith only then noticed how quiet he'd been. 'He isn't annoyed at me, is he?'

"Coran, what's going on?"

"Oh, no! Teluduv lens malfunction! We're about to exit this wormhole a lot sooner than we planned!"

"Whoa. Where are we? Looks like some sort of iceberg graveyard." Lance observed.

'At least he's talking again.' Keith would never admit it but lance's constant joking and rambling usually put him at ease and keep their conversations away from any uncomfortable silences.

————————————————————

"Huh? What the heck do you think you're doing?" Keith stepped into the elevator to see lance standing there in blue swim trunks with a towel round his shoulders.

He turned away hoping to cover the blush in his face from seeing Lance so exposed.

"Allura said there's a pool. I'm gonna go check it out. What do you think you're doing?" Keith answered a little more grumpily than he intended.

Lance sighed, "Same thing."

'Okay I don't think that hurt him at all. Wait why would it? we say worse to each other all the time. He knows it's just a joke. Calm down Keith.'  
————————————————————

"Look, you stay on one side of the pool and I'll stay on the other, and we'll be far, far away from each other. Very... far... away."   
'Why doesn't he want to be near me. Am I really that annoying?'

Like that's even a question at this point.

Lance was trying to look anywhere but Keith, his poor bi brain was spiraling right now, but he didn't want to cause himself to panic by close all the walls were.  
They were literally in a small metal box that was just being pulled up a shaft on a 10,000 year old ship that had already tried to kill him on multiple occasions.

So it didn't help when the lights went off.


	10. Chapter 10

Keith looked around trying to get his eyes to adjust in to darkness.  
"Hey Lance, help me find a cover or hatch or something we can get out through."  
He expected at least some sort of noise in affirmation but received nothing, not even the sound of Lance's feet padding to check the walls.  
"Lance? ...You okay?"

Keith reaches his hand out to where he remembered Lance to be.  
He wasn't as close as Keith he'd thought he was but when he reached him, his concern peaked.

Lance jerked his body away, a loud thud showing he probably stumbled and fell. "¡N-no, no mas! Por favor! Vete... por favor!"  
Lance's voice startled Keith. It was shaky and far more accented than Lance usually allowed.   
Keith recognized a few of the words but they only confused him more.

"Lance? Lance, buddy it's me, Keith. I'm not gonna hurt you. I'm going to start counting in threes, okay? Can... can you join in?"

Lance was quietly sobbing up until about 27 when he started to join in. By the time they'd made it to 84, he was breathing steadily again.

"Lance can I touch you? I'm going to help you get out of the elevator."

"Mm yeah okay."

Keith took Lance's hand and felt him squeeze it gently in return.

The two of them began climbing their way up the elevator shaft back to back.

Lance couldn't help the giddy feeling, he didn't know if it was just after affects of the hyperventilating or from being so close to a shirtless Keith. (Although he would probably have a similar feeling if he was as close to a fully clothed Keith.)

It was quiet between the two of them other than the occasion grunts or whines.  
Lance usually prevented the silence from drawing on this long, so the continuous quiet seemed to be making Keith all the more anxious for his friend.

"Keith, I really am okay now."  
Keith sighed and Lance felt him tilt his head slightly to the side.

"Mind telling me what that was about?"  
Lance debated it in his head for a minute or two. It probably would be better to tell someone, there was no guarantee that Hunk would always be able to help him.

Lance sighed.  
"I'm... claustrophobic. But I can usually handle that sort of thing, being in elevators that is.   
I guess the lights going out just reminded me of something."

Lance tensed slightly against Keith. The ravenet remained silent, waiting for an explanation.  
"My stepdad used to... lock me in small dark spaces when I did something he didn't like. Turned out to happen a lot to be honest. Hunk's the only other person that knows."

Keith squeezed his arm reassuringly.  
"Did he... do anything else?"

"....Sí." Lance was quiet, thinking of something to change the conversation to.

"What do you think the others are doin' right now?"

Keith seemed to get the memo and tilted his head again. He seemed to do that a lot when he thought about things.  
"I think Pidge was going to help Coran but I'm guessing she'll get kicked out for saying something blunt." Lance let out a breathy chuckle from behind him, "So she's probably with Hunk."  
Lance giggled again, "Hunk's probably stress baking, hopefully we get some cool space treats later."

Keith hummed beside him.  
"What about the Princess and Shiro?"

Keith took a moment to think before answering.  
"Shiro's probably at the bridge, pretending he doesn't need to sleep."

"What does he actually do in his free time?" Lance cocked his head curiously.

Keith hummed again, "I don't know if he really lets himself have free time."

"That's....sad...... What do you do? Other than train, that is."

Keith seemed to shift uncomfortably at the question.   
"....I like to...draw. Sometimes."

Lance smiled at the blush that was probably speeding across Keith's face.  
"That's pretty cool, I bet your really good too."  
Keith remained silent for second.  
"I-I mean your good at pretty much everything so it wouldn't surprise me at all and-

"....Was that a compliment?"  
Keith seemed uncertain, his voice was hesitant.  
"Um yeah?"  
"I think the last time you complimented me was the bonding moment..."

Lance was quiet. He knew this was a touchy subject and didn't want to press too much and push Keith away.

"I'm really sorry Keith." Lance reached back to squeeze Keith's hand again, "I really do wish I remembered."  
"So you really don't? You weren't just... ignoring it?"  
Lance shook his head.  
Keith felt it and seemed to relax a bit against him.  
"Does this count as a bonding moment? I-I mean you not exactly cradling me in your arms but- "

"Yeah. Yeah I think this counts."

Lance blushes against Keith, smiling softly as they continued their climb.  
———————time skip————————

"They found us again? How is that possible? Is that possible? That doesn't seem possible!" Lance and Keith has run back to the bridge still in their swimwear and dripping wet.

"Right now, we must figure out a way to get out of here." Allura was at her position and looked even more exhausted than before.

"Or we can stay and fight. Now's our chance. Form Voltron. Enough running!" Keith could probably kill someone with that look, either out of fear or, in Lance's case, making their heart explode.

"It's too dangerous!"

"Allura's right. We can't take on Zarkon and his entire fleet. Remember what happened at Zarkon's command center. We wouldn't have escaped if the Blade of Marmora hadn't shut down the shield." Shiro, as usual, was the one to calm Keith down.

Pidge ran out of the room to help Coran fix the turbines while Lance, Keith and Shiro all brought out their defense drones.

"Lance, there's a fighter advancing on your nine!" Keith called out from ahead of him.

"Thanks for the heads-up! And you've got one going for the lower barrier."

"Good eye!" If Lance thought his heart was going to explode before, now he was wondering how his stomach wasn't heating the whole room with the warmth inside it.

"Okay, buddy, you're mine. What's going on? I lost control of my defense drone!" Lance called out as his screen vanished.

"I got you covered! Uh, I don't got you. Oh, there must be a system failure."

"Nope, that was us!" Pidge called from the other side of a screen while Coran could be heard screaming in the background.

"We're diverting power from non-essential systems to get the wormhole generator working."

"Shooting bad guys is pretty essential!" Lance stood up angrily.

"We lost secondary controls! Thermal regulator's offline! Oh, no, there goes the particle barrier!" Hunk called out from his relatively emptier side of the room.

"Okay, try it! We should be able to make one very small jump... I hope." 

'You hope. YOU HOPE!'

"Oh, no! The lenses are breaking down even more! We'll be out of the wormhole even sooner this time!"

When they came out of the wormhole, Shiro and Allura began discussing how Zarkon could be tracking them. Lance had the feeling he was supposed to be paying attention but the adrenaline from the battle was wearing off.

If it was important then he'd probably find out later.

Lance slumped back in his chair. He was mostly dry by now, his hair only slightly damp.   
His eyes drifted forwards to where the red paladin was slouching.   
He looked like he'd drifted off already.  
He looked a lot more peaceful and relaxed like that, almost cat like.

Hunk was snoring deeply at the other end of the room, "Oh, man! Oh, what's going on? What are you guys doing? What are you looking at?"

"You woke yourself up snoring." Keith grumbled sleepily, he's definitely not a morning person.  
"My bad."

Coran, Pidge and Shiro were talking about the teleduv and the tracking problem but Lance couldn't find the energy to pay attention, usually he could deal with a lack of sleep but he'd been awake a lot longer than all the others due to his insomnia.

And the alarms were blaring again. 

Great.

Lance swore at the end of the day he'd have a pounding headache.

They quickly formed Voltron and left to engage the fighters. They drew them away long enough for the castle to open a wormhole for them to escape through.

As they were walking back to the bridge, Pidge had a disgusted look on her face.  
"You okay, Pidgey?"   
Pidge looked at him, clearly grumpy from lack of sleep.  
"I feel disgusted."  
Lance cocked his head, confused.  
"I felt all lovey dovey when we in Voltron." She explained, "It was disgusting and I'm actually going to kill whoever it was if it happens again."

Lance stepped away from the gremlin, smiling, despite knowing all to well how he'd been feeling while they were fighting. He didn't realize it was strong enough for the rest of the team to feel.

Normally, he'd feel embarrassed or at least a little bad but now he was just too tired to actually do anything about it other than sleep.


	11. Chapter 11

"There's no point in debating this further. Zarkon is clearly tracking us through me." Allura declared, she almost seemed angry.  
"Aww, space baloney."  
"That's not possible."

"Why would that be so hard to believe? Zarkon's forces showed up on Arus only after I awoke." Allura countered, as usual lance tries to diffuse the situation with flirting and humor.

"She's got a point. I would absolutely travel across the galaxy to find you."  
Lance said as he bowed to the the princess.

"It's not you, Princess Allura. It's me."

'Keith. Seriously, no. This is the first thing you've said this whole time. How am I supposed to make you feel better, you just get angry at my jokes.'

"I just think Zarkon must've imprinted on me during our fight or something."

"Look, the fact is, we don't know how Zarkon is tracking us. It could be through the Black Lion. Every time Zarkon gets close to it, Shiro has to fight him for control." And as usual lance is more inclined to believe Pidge over the other two.

"Look, it doesn't matter how he's tracking us because we're gonna take the fight to the Galra soon enough. They've been chasing us from galaxy to galaxy. The last thing they expect is for us to come after them." Shiro, the lack of sleep seemed to be catching up to him.

"The hunter becomes the hunted, hmm? Awesome! That's the tag line from like six of my favorite movies." Lance exclaimed nudging Keith trying to at least distract him a bit.

"As it happens, I took our list of recent Galra attacks and analyzed it for both commonalities and anomalies among the attack sites. I was hoping to create an algorithm that would, within a statistically acceptable margin of error, provide a list of target-rich Galra environments color-coded, of course, because what are we, animals?" Pidge flashed her glasses like an anime character.  
"Cool! What is it again?"

"It's a Galra finder?"

"Well, "finder" suggests that it locates the Galra, whereas it would be more accurate to say that my model predicts their likeliest- Fine. It's a Galra finder."  
"So, where are the Galra?"

"The nearest ones are right here. A planet called Taujeer."

"Then that's where we're headed. Everyone should get some sleep. Tomorrow, we'll find that Galra fleet and take it out."

————————————————————  
Despite Shiro's order, many of the castles occupants seemed reluctant to sleep and as usual it fell to Lance to make sure they slept.

It wasn't like it was a designated responsibility, in fact most of the team probably didn't even realize lance did it. Instead, Lance did it to help de-stress and tire himself out.

First of the group was Hunk.  
Lance found him heading towards the kitchen where he usually caught him stress baking.  
"Hunk buddy, what're you doing?"

Hunk turned faintly surprised that Lance had managed to sneak up on him.   
"Oh I was just going to bake something real quick.."  
Lance cocked his head to the side as he thought of a reasonable solution.  
He clicked his tongue when he thought of one.

"Come on, follow me."  
Hunk followed him with little prompting to Lance's room where he handed him a plain empty note book.   
"If you think of any recipes when you're trying to sleep, write them down in here then you can try them in the morning and hopefully it will tire you out a bit too."  
Hunk thanked him and left for his own room.

Next was Pidge. Lance walked straight to her room, where he knew she'd be typing away at her computer.   
He opened the door, picked up the laptop and turned it off as soon as he'd saved whatever Pidge was doing.  
"Hey give it back! Lance! I have stuff to do!"  
"Mmhm like sleep. Come on, you'll be able to work and think better once you've slept a bit."   
Still grumbling, Pidge allowed lance to scoop her up and place her in bed, pulling the covers around her and turning the lights off.

Next Keith. Usually Keith was quite difficult and trained into the early morning but today he wasn't in the training room and already heading to bed. Lance suspected Shiro had directly told him to sleep. He was thankful, this meant he might get a fairly good sleep after all.

Coran and Allura has already gone to sleep and Shiro had started taking sleeping pills prescribed by Coran when lance suggested it, so Shiro was also asleep.

Feeling slightly more tired lance left for his own room. He didn't feel tired or accomplished enough to sleep but he found he didn't need to think about that yet as he'd forgotten four other residents.

The mice awaited him in his room, sitting around the Altean guitar-like instrument lance had found on board.

After he found out that the mice would often relay the teams secrets to Allura he began bribing them for secrecy. He did simple things like wash them, to talk to them or even sing to them. Although they couldn't understand each other they'd figured out how to talk to each other using loose charades.

Today they seemed to want a song.  
Lance smiled as he picked up the instrument.   
He pondered a song before deciding on a song he liked to sing with his younger cousin whenever they saw each other.

"Yea, mi sirena  
Hace como un par de años que pasó lo  
Impredecible te fuiste por un futuro y el pasado se quedo.  
Después de un par de meses no sabía como sentirme,  
Tu luchabas por tus sueños pero pero me abandonaste .  
Un dolor de cabeza terrible,  
Dime me paso pensando cuando dijiste te amo mientras soltaba la mano.  
Un dolor de cabeza terrible yo ya no quiero olvidarte,  
Pero cuando amas a alguien tu tienes que dejarla ir....."

————————————————————

Keith woke up a cold sweat, panting heavily as he recalled his nightmare. 

'No. No, I won't.. I'm not...'  
You're endangering the team. Just leave. They won't want you once they know anyway.

Scrambling to his feet, he grabbed an Altean bag and began gathering his clothes, pulling on his paladin armor on.

As he left his room, he was briefly entranced by a low voice, softly singing down the hall.  
He shook his head, forcing out the thoughts of longing, and began making his way to the kitchen where he could stock up on supplies.

————————————————————

"We should be entering Taujeer's orbit soon."  
"Raise the particle barrier. Scan for Galra. Where are Keith and Allura?" Shiro said as the four remaining paladins took their seats.

"It appears that one of the pods launched in the middle of the night."  
Lance's stomach lurched,   
'Keith and Allura...together alone... two of the best looking people on the ship...alone...'  
"Wait a minute, Keith and Allura? In the middle of the night? You don't think they're..... sittin' in a tree?"  
"Contact the pod." Thank Shiro's space dad instincts.  
"Yes! Contact that pod!"

"Princess, Keith, where are you?"

"Exactly where we should be, far away from the Castle." Allura replied.  
"What? Why?"  
"We must know if we are the ones Zarkon is tracking."

"They're isolating the variable. Well, isolating two variables."  
"In English, please?" Lance was smirking in his head,  
"In order to test a hypothesis-"  
"I said English."  
"Never mind!" This time he actually had to hold back a giggle, obviously he knew what variables were, he'd got into the garrison on a scholarship. He really wasn't as dumb as they thought he was, it was just fun to mess with them. Especially Pidge and Keith.

Lance was brought out of his thoughts by Keith's voice.  
"If Zarkon does find us, I can pilot us to safety. We're in wide-open space with plenty of room to maneuver. Plus, we'd be able to outrun him. Pidge added that booster rocket."

"We need both of you back here now! What's goin' on?"

"We're in some sort of debris field."

"I believe it's coming from Taujeer. Correction: I think it is Taujeer!"

"Coran, what's going on-"  
"Some kind of radiation from the planet is interfering with communications!"

"Move the Castle away from the planet and reestablish the link. Everyone else, get to your lions."

———————————————————

"We've been here for hours. Still no sign of Zarkon." Keith was getting a little anxious since their communications with the castle had been messing up.

"Well, I'm glad I don't have to wait here alone. You understand, I could never live with myself if Zarkon was finding us because of me. I must know. We face such a dire threat from the Galra."

"Well, sure, they're bad. No doubt about that. But at the same time, couldn't at least a few of them be fighting for good? Just look at Ulaz. He sacrificed himself to save us."

"For all we know, his sacrifice was a ploy. One life means nothing to Zarkon."

He was starting get annoyed but also a little scared. If he was right then how on earth would Allura let him stay?

"It means something to me. It means some of them are actually willing to help. And we could use all the help we can get!"

"Any offer of help from the Galra is merely a prelude to a trap. I know all too well how quickly they turn."

"It just seems crazy to lump everyone together."

"Listen, if there are any good Galra, they have had 10,000 years to take down Zarkon. I would never count on them for help."  
Keith was going to say something along the lines of 'well you just slept for 10,000 years' but the sinking feeling in his chest stopping him from trusting his voice. He didn't want to break down in front of someone who would probably be ready to kill him if they knew the truth.

.  
.  
.  
.  
.

"So, what happens if Zarkon does come after us?   
"You said you could pilot us to safety, right?"  
"Sure, but after that, could we even go back to the group? And if we don't, who would pilot the Castle or create wormholes?" Keith was starting to majorly regret going through with this .

"Well, what about you? Without you, the team cannot form Voltron."  
Keith remained silent. They wouldn't kick him out then right? They need him for Voltron so they can't force him to leave but if they only kept him for that then would he really want to stay?

The static from their Comms broke for them to hear Coran's voice.  
"I'm on my way! Keith, Allura, are you there?"  
"We're here, Coran. What is it?"  
"Zarkon is definitely not tracking us through either of you."  
"He's not?" Relief briefly flooded over Keith.   
"How do you know?"  
"Because you're out there, and a Galra fleet just showed up here! We need you now!" And the relief was gone as quickly as it came.  
"We'll be there in two doboshes."  
"Even faster than that." Keith reached forward to press a button on the control panel.  
"What is that?"  
"It's the booster fuel Pidge added to this pod."

No sooner than he had press the button the back of the pod exploded, ejecting them into open space.

They flew around screaming as they spun.  
"Allura! Grab my hand! Princess, are you okay?"  
"I believe so. Is your radio still working?"  
"Let's find out. Coran, can you hear me?" Instead of Coran's cheerful voice they were met with silence.

"We'll never get there at this rate."

"This was a terrible mistake. Shiro was right. We never should have left them."

"..."  
If Allura was looking for him to reassure she'd be waiting a while.  
"Keith, look!"  
"Huh?"  
"The Red Lion found you!"  
.  
.  
After defeating Morvak, the team transferred the Tarjeeruns to their moon and then gathered at the bridge of the castle.

"I'm so sorry for leaving." Allura bowed her head towards the others.  
"Me too. We thought we were doing the right thing." Keith added quietly.  
"But clearly you were correct, Shiro. We are always stronger together."

"At least we learned that Zarkon isn't tracking us through you two."  
Keith smiled slightly in relief at Lance.  
'Leave it to him to look on the bright side.'

Slowly Keith turned back to the conversation.

"The fact that the Red Lion came to help Keith from so far away is a vital piece of information. We now have proof that a lion and a Paladin can, in fact, connect over a far greater distance than we realized. Which means we finally know how Zarkon is tracking us. It's through the Black Lion."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really can't wait to get to the parts when I can write more using my own imagination instead of just rewriting small parts.  
> Also the song lance is singing is 'sirena' by lu-ni.


	12. Chapter 12

"Hello? Back passengers? Can you hear me?" Coran called into through the Comms.  
"Oh, it's so comfy up here. Extra leg-room, heated seats! Oh, man!"

Keith could practically see Lance's smirk in his head .  
"Stupid Lance. Stupid shotgun." Hunk grumbled.   
'Why are they so bothered, here's fine.'

"Now, these swap moons are very dangerous environments. So be on your toes. No weapons or communication devices of any kind! Also, I've brought along some disguises."

They had about an 10 minutes left of the journey and Keith was getting restless. Hunk and Pidge had moved through various conversations which Keith has given up trying to understand what they were saying through the inside jokes and tech talk.

Lance and Coran talked for a bit too but now all you could hear through the Comms was Coran's surprisingly high singing voice.

Keith turned back to Hunk and Pidge who were looking at each other mischievously.   
"Oh god... What are you planning?"  
Hunk looked to Pidge for permission the pressed the button on the panel beside them.

"Hey lance? Pidge and I have a request."  
Pidge held a hand over her mouth to stop herself giggling.  
"Hmmm what is it, my man?"

This time it was Pidge who talked, apparently she'd gotten control of her laughter, "We want you to sing for us. And before you try refuse, Hunk has a lot of memories he can use against you."

Lance sucked in a breath in mock betrayal, "Hunk! How could you?!"

Keith interest had been firmly secured when he remembered the singing from the day before. 'That was real then? And... Lance?'

(The song is Lucky by Jeremy Shada -- https://youtu.be/4an7sOuUXwQ )

The four of them were quiet. Lance's voice was enchanting.   
Keith felt oddly at peace, he almost felt like the song was addressed to him and, surprising himself, he loved it.

Of course he didn't know that, it was just a feeling. 

Little did he know that after Lance was finished, he was blushing a deep shade of red.

———————————————————

After leaving the main group Lance began wandering the mall, unlike the rest of the team, he was searching for two things.  
The scaultrite lenses and some sort of space substitute for his antidepressants. He hoped he could find something and didn't have to either make his own or ask Coran for help. Asking him for help would mean he had to explain what was wrong with him and he was fairly certain Coran would try to tell the team.

He didn't really have a destination in mind and just wondered as much as he could, hoping to find something.   
Although he wasn't sure how he was supposed to be able to buy anything without any money.

He was brought out of his daze by a familiar voice.  
"I just had a question."

"Fine! What do you got?"  
"Have you ever come across something like this?"  
Keith seemed to be talking to a shop owner. He was pretty close but had his back towards Lance so he probably couldn't see him.

"Whoa, this craftsmanship is incredible! And is this a luxite blade? The planet they mine that from hasn't existed in decafebes. Where'd you get this?"  
"Someone gave it to me." Keith seemed hesitant to even answer that much, Lance started to feel guilty for listening into what was clearly something personal and began to walk away, still able to hear the store owners parts of the conversation over his mic.  
"Okay, that's vague. Tell you what...

Lance had managed to get a fair bit away from Keith but still hadn't found any of the things he was looking for.

That's when he came upon a strange store that seemed to be filled to the brim of things from earth. Hope sparked in his chest.  
If anywhere was selling antidepressants, this would be it.  
"Can I interest you in the latest Earth fashions?"  
Lance was about to reply when he heard someone else calling to him  
"Lance, come on! We have to be back at the ticking clock in a half hour."  
"But Pidge, wait, look at all this crazy Earth stuff this alien is selling!"  
"We're supposed to be looking for the teludav lenses and you're looking in the one store we know for certain won't have- Oh, my gosh! Is that Killbot Phantasm 1? The first journey to the depths of the demon sphere? Oh! Mercury Gameflux Two! With the original power glove that gives you infinite lives if you touch the index finger to the pinky! We have to have this! How much is this?"  
"1200 GAC."  
"Is that a lot?"  
"Well, compared to what we have, which is none, yes. It's a lot."  
"We're gonna find some money. Come on! Don't sell that!"  
"Don't worry. I never sell anything. Do I, Kaltenecker?"

.  
.  
.  
Lance and Pidge managed to gather all the money they needed for the game console. Lance thought about telling her about his problem but didn't want to stop her from being a kid. He was also scared that she wouldn't believe him or kick him off the team for being so weak.  
So he didn't. He never even left Pidge to look for the medication.  
.  
.  
.

The team were back on the bridge.  
Shiro had strengthened his bond with the black lion enough that they wouldn't be tracked so they had decided to set a course for the blade of Mamora's headquarters.

"I'm gonna hook up the video game Lance and I bought." Pidge decided.  
"Yeah! Let's get this baby set up."  
"Where can we... How do... Nooooo!"  
"Hunk! HUNK! Coran! It's an emergency! If there anywhere we could plug these into?"  
"Hm yes I think I have something I could use for that, may I ask why, my boy?"  
Coran stroked his mustache thoughtfully.  
"We thought it would be a good way for the team to bond! You know like a game night!" Pidge had a childish playful glean in her eyes that they rarely got to see anymore.

Shiro smiled, "I think that's a good idea, Pidge.  
Team we'll meet in the lounge in half an hour."  
Keith groaned but Lance could tell he was suppressing a smile.  
"Aw yes! Team sleepover! Oo can we play truth or dare too?"  
Hunk was jumping up and down in excitement while Allura and Coran both looked confused but agreed since they counted it as team bonding.


	13. Chapter 13

The team met back in the lounge at about 9pm. The usually plain room had been thoroughly decorated by Hunk and Pidge. Blankets hung from the ceiling to make a tent-like area in the center. The floor was covered in blankets and cushions from all of their rooms and it was lit by blue and purple fairy lights that Coran had managed to find.  
The game console was already set up by one of the walls, Pidge and Allura were competitively playing against each other.

Keith and Shiro walked in together, after Shiro had spent the past half an hour coaxing Keith into coming to join them. Keith wore black shorts and a loose red shirt.

Lance turned away when he felt his face start to heat up, and instead started to watch Allura getting more and more frustrated with the game. Lance wore a loose blue lion onesie (Hunk had to help help him choose between that and his shark onesie because apparently Lance has a onesie obsession).

Hunk arrived next with Coran and trays of snacks and some kind of Altean alcohol which Lance really hoped wasn't nunvil.  
They set the trays on the sofas and huddled into their fort.  
"Is that... alcohol?" Shiro apprehensively asked,  
"Why yes! I believe that is what number 3 called it. I managed to find another alcoholic Altean beverage so we could play a game I believe number 2 told me about."  
Coran twirled his mustache while Hunk grinned.  
"I thought it would be fun to play never have I ever, it could help us get closer as a team.. so yeah."  
Hunk trailed off as Shiro shifted apparently thinking about it.  
"But your all a bit too young for this don't you think, especially Pidge."  
Pidge scoffed, Keith shrugged and grabbed a glass, while lance smirked.  
"Pidge doesn't have to drink but the rest of us would be old enough due to the intergalactic drinking age."  
Shiro still seemed reluctant but with some coaxing from Allura the game began with the rule that Pidge would have to do a dare instead of drinking.

The seven of them sat in a circle, the video game long forgotten.  
Hunk took his turn first and nervously but his lip until he thought of one.  
"Er.. never have I ever... had a part time job."  
Lance huffed, muttering about it being targeted, and drank along with Shiro while Pidge explained the idea of a part time job to Coran and Allura.   
They went round the circle until it got to Shiro, who grinned maliciously at Keith, "Never have I ever stolen off of anyone here."  
Keith grumbled and drank while Pidge quietly shifted and then asked for a dare. She was dared to run round the group acting like a Pigeon until she needed a new dare.

Next was Keith. He glared at Shiro and cleared his throat, "Never have I ever made out in a church."  
Shiro went a deep shade of red and drank. Lance was spluttering while Hunk and Pidge laughed.  
It was Pidge's turn next. She changed the game truth or dare and she asked Lance, seen as he'd been the one to dare her before.

"Erm.. dare." Lance realized his mistake when Pidge struggled to contain her giggles.  
"I dare you to sit in Keith's lap for the rest of the game."  
Hunk burst out laughing while Lance and Keith both turned a bright shade of red.

Grumbling, Lance made his way over to Keith and plopped down between his legs.  
Lance went next, still red-faced, and glared at both Hunk and Pidge, flipping the game back to never have I ever, before deciding, "Never have I ever called a teacher, and I quote, "soggy mistake of a breadstick""  
Keith snorted while Hunk practically fumed, "She didn't know the difference between granulated and caster sugar."  
Coran and Shiro looked thoroughly confused while Allura produced a head set.  
"Paladins! I have the most enticing idea! This headset allows us to see specific memories, we could use it to actually experience these moments with you."  
The paladins looked at each other before shrugging, each of them with their own plans in mind.

Coran suggested the go round the circle and produce their own memories of each other. For example, on Shiro's turn, he would show them a memory he had of a random person in the group.  
They would keep going until everyone had shown a memory of each person.

Shiro went first an had to pick one of Pidge.  
His memory showed the time Shiro tried to prank Pidge for a vine only for Pidge to tell him vine was dead and Shiro having to comforted on the floor.

Next was Pidge, her memory showed Keith chasing her around the castle in duck slippers that quacked with every step he made.

On Keith's turn, his memory showed Shiro celebrating his fifth/20th birthday and Keith giving him a pepper pig stuffed toy and a sticker.

Shiro passed his go to Lance who showed a memory of him Hunk and Pidge.  
The three of them had sneaked out of the garrison and were enjoying ice creams in the nearest town when they ran into some officers from the garrison.  
Hunk shrieked as Lance threw his ice cream at them and ran.  
He met up with the other two back at his and Hunks dorm room. Him and Pidge was grinning ear to ear and managed to pant out that they all owed him an ice cream.

That was the beginning of Garrison trio.

As the memory finished, Lance dramatically collapsed back onto Keith, "And alas, I never got my ice cream..."  
Lance sighed dramatically, while Pidge giggled rolling her eyes.

Pidge whispered something to Hunk, they both turned to look at Lance before laughing and placing the headset on Hunk.

They appeared in one of Hunk's memories.  
Him, Lance and another boy stood in a dark club. Lance and the other boy were dancing together and taking shots while Hunk was on the phone to someone.

The other boy had short dark hair and lightly tanned skin but the most noticeable thing about him was his jacket. It was the one Lance usually wore.  
The two of them twirled together, dancing closely and giving each other sloppy drunken kisses.  
Hunk was still on the phone, speaking loudly enough for the others to hear.  
He looked back to were to boys were only to notice their absence.  
He shrieked into the phone looking around frantically, "PiDge! PiDgE! ThEir GoNe! OUr Gay LOveBirds Are GoNe ,PidgE!"  
Hunk hung up and began pushing through the crowd, falling into a back room were Lance was pushed up against the wall desperately kissing the other boy.

Hunk flushed a deep red and backed out the room closing the door behind him.  
"Nope, not today."

The memory faded. Hunk and Pidge burst out laughing while Lance hid his face in his hands and lent back into Keith, groaning, "That's why you acting so weird..."  
Pidge giggled, "Did you at least get la-"  
Lance cut her off with a pillow, still blushing profusely.

Keith sat in confused silence. 'Wait is Lance gay? But he flirts with girls.. is he bi? should I- wait why do I care? It doesn't matter. It's just Lance!'

Shiro seemed to be largely unaffected by the new information, "So are you Bi then, Lance?" He asked casually. 

Lance seemed to tense slightly, as if he had forgotten the others were even in the room, "Er yeah.. I am." 

Shiro nodded understandingly and smiled, gesturing to him and Keith, "Me and Keith are both gay. Keith actually figured himself out when they had to do swimming lessons and one of his schools. The first thing he said when he got home was something like, "How do people like girls more than guys. They're just..."" Lance giggled, his nerves easing, while Keith bristled behind him. He tried to fold his arms to complete his signature pouting look, only to accidentally encase Lance in a hug instead. Not knowing what to do, he just stayed like that, while the Alteans launched into an explanation about how all Alteans are all pansexual.

The game wrapped up a while later, the Paladins either began making their way to bed or passed out in the lounge.   
Keith had fallen asleep with Lance still in his lap. Lance was obviously blushing but he wasn't that bothered now that it was just him and Hunk.

"Are you- Wait do you? Oh my God, Lance you and Keith would be so adorable and-"  
"Alright, alright shush.. I don't know Hunk.. I like him but.. is it too soon? I mean it's only been, what a year since...   
I really like him but is it wrong? I just- I don't know what to do Hunk." Lance hiccuped and began tearing up half way through what he was saying.  
Lance hung his head while Hunk drew him into a hug, petting his hair reassuringly.  
"Hey it's okay. You have all the time in the world to come to terms with this. You don't have to rush into anything but liking or even dating someone after Dani isn't a bad thing and doesn't make you a bad person. He would want you to be happy..."  
Lance smiled, tears trailed down his cheeks. Sure he was still confused about how he should be feeling but he was happy to give it some time and he as happy that Hunk would still be with him no matter what. 

He turned around a little to look at Keith's peaceful, sleeping face. His lips were slightly parted and his hair was messy from their long day but they were content. Lance drifted off quicker than he had in a long time into a peaceful sleep, feeling safe snuggled between Keith and Hunk.


	14. Chapter 14

That morning Lance woke up in the lounge. He was alone but smothered in blankets and pillows so he assumed the others had let him sleep in. He was a little disappointed that they hadn't bothered to wake him but he did feel a lot more refreshed than usual so he wasn't going to complain.

After stretching and quickly heading back to his own room to brush his teeth get dressed and go briefly through his morning routine, he made his way to the bridge to meet the others.

They had arrived at the blade of Marmora's base and were planning their meeting with them. Lance attempted to lighten the mood and cheer Keith up a few times while they were there but it mainly resulted in them both just annoying each other further.

Keith felt kind of bad about snapping at the Cuban but he was anxious about what he'd find at the base and whether or not he'd like any answers he got.

———————-time skip————————

"How long has it been?" Allura demanded, Lance guessed that she was probably the most authoritative out of the group other than Shiro.  
"Roughly ten vargas." Coran seemed worried despite his usual chirpy attitude.  
Lance had done just about everything he could to do distract himself but was quickly running out of options with the way Keith always seemed to come to mind no matter what he was doing or where he was.  
"We cannot just wait here."   
"The path is closed for, like, I don't know, 30 more vargas or something?"  
Lance answered absentmindedly. There wasn't really much they could do, they had to wait for at least another day until Keith and Shiro came back.   
"That's actually correct."  
"Really?" Lance just about managed to suppress a wince at their surprised comments.

Lance cracked his knuckles and put on a smug mask. "Yeah, I wasn't born yester-quintant." 

Of course they're surprised. Since when was anything you say correct. I'm surprised they can even understand you, your English is terrible. 

"I-I have to know what's going on down there." Allura didn't seem to even see the reason in requesting it, it was just a plain order.   
"There's no way to get a read on their base. Too much interference from the solar flares and the black holes."  
"If we account for the gravitational lensing, maybe we can reduce the noise and interference and connect with the Red Lion's sensors, right? Th-That's right, right?"  
Hunk looked to Lance and Lance looked between Hunk and Coran before the realization hit him.  
Lance pointed at himself. "Are you looking at me?"  
You're the dumbest person here. He's just trying to make you feel better. It's pity that's all.  
"We can give it a try."  
"Get on it."

While Hunk, Pidge and Coran got to work, Lance wondered off to his new secret place.  
Whenever Lance couldn't sleep, he'd taken to either training or exploring the castle.  
In his adventures he'd discovered a lot of news places, including a dance studio and a separate training room made specifically for gun wielders, almost like a super high tech Altean shooting range.

Deciding to take his anxiousness on the targets, he made his way to his shooting range.   
As usual it was empty and relatively clean, Coran didn't clean it since he was usually too busy with other parts of the castle, so Lance cleaned it. Off to the left hand side of the room was another door leading to a shower room and changing room.  
The room was fairly large, not as spacious as the main training room but Lance preferred it. It was easier to train without the others for a lot of reasons, one of the more prominent ones being the insecurities that training with them always managed to bring up.  
He changed into his armor and took out his bayard. He'd recently managed to change it into a sniper rifle as well although he suspected the others had already managed to do that or something similar.   
He stepped up to the center of the room, "continue training sequence."  
"Continuing level 18."  
Two larger bit dropped into the room along with five spherical drones.

Lance transformed his Bayard into his usual blaster and took out the two training bots before they came too close. While dodging shots from the drones lance activated his shield and changed his bayard into his sniper rifle and began shooting down the drones.

He kept training until he reached level 26 and he decided he needed to take a break.   
He'd already missed dinner but didn't really feel like eating anyway.  
He just trekked back to his room and took a quick shower, he didn't bother with a face mask since he'd already done one that morning and just collapsed into bed.   
Only level 26. I bet Keith's on level 50 by now even Pidge and Hunk will be at level 40. You're so behind.  
Weak.  
Useless.  
Can't you do anything right. If you'd just convinced Shiro...   
no. He'd never have let you go. He knows how pathetic you are. He knows how useless you are. You'll never be good enough for them.

Left alone to his thoughts, he drowned in them alone, fair away from anyone that could hear him. Not even the mice came to check on him.

////time skip////

"Princess, we're coming back, and we're bringing someone you should meet."  
"They're all right!" Coran noticeably relaxed while everyone else cheered. Lance sunk into his seat and let out a breath, letting his eyes wander to the Red Paladin's seat.

The Red Lion landed in the hangar. Keith, Shiro and Kolivan step out to meet the others. Kolivan's mask vanished to reveal his face. He pulled down his hood and knelt in front of Allura.

"Princess Allura, it's good to see that the rumors are true. You're still alive after all these years."  
"So is Zarkon. Can we consider you our ally in the fight against him?"  
"Yes, but we have little time to discuss this. I just received word from our spy inside the Galran hierarchy. They have become aware of our presence, so the timetable for our plan has been moved up."  
"How soon do we need to begin?"  
"Now."

Lance listened nervously from the side. He didn't say anything for fear of ruining their chances, so he took to observing.  
Kolivan, like most of the Galra they'd met, was to be very tall.  
Lance had a slight suspicion that Keith was part Galra. Ever since they'd freed the Balmera, clues had started to spring up. No one else seemed to notice but with each new clue Keith also seemed a bit unnerved so Lance had kept from saying anything that could ruin their still new friendship.

Speaking of Keith, he seemed to be leaning quite a bit on red. Is he hurt? Is that why the red lion attacked?  
By now Lance was fully aware of Keith's lack of trust in him, although they both knew it was neither of their faults- Keith just hadn't known him long enough to trust him like he trusted Shiro, so he knew he'd have to be careful.

Allura and Shiro lead Kolivan to the meeting room while Keith hung back.  
Lance convinced Hunk to go ahead, he thought he most likely wouldn't be welcome at the meeting anyway and decided to made his way over to Keith, who was now fully leaning on Red with his eyes closed.

"Keith? What happened?"  
Keith's eyes snapped open and looked at Lance in surprise, maybe even with a hint of fear.  
"Er I- what? What are talking about?"  
"You're hurt. How?"  
"What! I'm not hurt I'm-"  
Lance poked his shoulder, unimpressed, but instantly regretted it when Keith hissed in pain.   
"Damn." Lance muttered to himself, "Look you don't have to tell me what happened but at least let me patch you up." Lance looked to Keith pleadingly, he hated seeing Keith hurt and didn't see why he was letting himself suffer.  
Hypocrite.  
He doesn't need your help, you'll just make things worse.

Keith's violet eyes met lance's blue ones, they were full of poorly hidden uncertainty and fear. They searched Lance's face for any sign of deception before nodding softly.


	15. Chapter 15

After Keith nodded, Lance moved to his side, putting his hand on his waist and draping Keith's arm around his shoulder carefully, trying not to strain any of his injuries.

Keith grunted a little but allowed him to lead him back to Lance's room.

When they got there, Lance left Keith leaning against the wall on his bed to get his first aid kit from his bathroom.

When he came back Keith looked up at him curiously, "Why do you have a med kit in your room?"  
Lance tilted his head and knelt before Keith, "I guess it's just a habit. Plus, it's more convenient."  
Keith nodded slightly in agreement and then started when he noticed him peeling his armor off.  
"Woah! Calm down, Keith. I need to take your armor off otherwise I can't help you, remember?"  
Keith only hummed in response and averted his gaze, he was too tired to think about anything he was saying and honestly didn't trust his mouth right now.

Lance went about removing Keith's armor and gasped when he noticed the dried blood taking up small patches of the under-suit.  
Lance bit his lip as he peeled away the top half of the fabric.

Keith's pale skin was spotted with a range of different colored bruises, all in various stages of healing.  
In some places, there were shallow cuts that had reopened, blood still oozed slowly from many of them, although they luckily were all quite shallow.

Keith gulped as he watched Lance open his med kit and set about cleaning and bandaging his wounds, luckily he didn't have any broken bones. He had had a dislocated shoulder but Shiro had sorted that on their way back.   
Keith sat silently, mentally preparing himself for the questions he knew would come.

Instead Lance surprised him and stayed quiet.

"Aren't you going to ask anything...?"  
Lance hummed, "I already said I wouldn't. Unless you want to tell me something." Lance seemed to be pondering something in his head and Keith admired his handiwork, he was surprisingly good at first aid.

Keith grimaced as he remembered their conversation in the elevator shaft, he supposed Lance probably got a lot of practice.

"So are you actually part Galra then?"  
The question caught him off guard. Had Shiro told the others already? Did-  
"I'll take that as yes. No one told me anything, if that's what you're worried about. I kinda guessed so.."  
Lance sat down beside Keith on his bed.  
"How?"  
Lance looked up at Keith questioningly, "What?"  
"How did you know? How aren't you scared? How are you-"  
"Ssh." Lance pressed a finger to Keith lips, "I just started paying more attention to smaller things so I wouldn't be the last one to know again, you know like with Pidge.. It really was just minor things, no one would notice unless they were looking for it."  
Keith looked at him in confusion, Lance just smiled at him reassuringly.  
"You're still the same person as before and I trust you either way so it doesn't really make any sense to freak out."

Keith still looked unsure. Lance sighed and brought him into a hug. Keith tensed at first but relaxed into it quickly.  
Lance rubbed small circles into his back and ran his other hand soothingly through his hair, speaking in hushed tones, "I don't care what so ever. You just need some time to adjust, the others probably will too but they'll end up treating you the same as before either way."  
Lance began to notice his shirt becoming damper and Keith shaking ever so slightly in his arms. Lance nuzzled his face into Keith's cheek and carried on playing with his hair.

They stayed like this for a while. Lance whispering reassurances into Keith's ear as Keith sobbed into his chest, until Keith eventually fell asleep. By that point, Lance was too tired to take Keith to his own room and instead laid Keith in his bed and tucked himself in next to him, making sure to keep a protective hold on Keith as he drifted off himself.

Keith woke up feeling a warm presence around him and the calming scent of the ocean enveloping him.  
Eventually, Keith's eyes drifted open to see a sleeping Lance loosely holding him. Lance was breathing softly, silent except for the occasional muttered Spanish words.   
Keith shifted clumsily to get a better look at him. His face had a healthy splattering of freckles dancing across it that Keith didn't remember seeing before, his skin was glowing a soft caramel brown and his hair was messed up from sleeping. It curled around his face in waves giving it extra fluffy volume.

Keith's movement must have woken him as his eyes fluttered sleepily open. His ocean blue eyes drifted over to meet his own amethyst ones. His eyes reflected the soft smile that lit up his features as they sparked in recognition.  
"Mm... Buenas dias..."  
Lance nuzzled his cheek into Keith's arm and yawned. Finally crawling out of bed stretching.  
"Hm.. I'm going to take a shower and get ready, you can stay a bit longer if you want?"

Keith hummed and stretched, "m gonna get changed.. should I... tell the others today?"  
Lance hummed as he thought, sleepiness already gone, "It would be a good idea to tell them sooner rather than later." Lance closed his eyes and tilted his head to the side, "Wait till I get there Okay? I'm kinda worried about the Alteans, mainly Allura. You saw how she was with Kolivan."

Keith nodded and turned to leave a dread settled once again in his stomach.   
"Keithy... none of this is your fault. You can't change any of this either so don't beat yourself up over it. Okay?"  
Keith turned back to Lance, a small smile on his face again, "Okay. I'll try."  
And with that Keith left for his own room and prepared to face his new family as fear filled him up once again.


	16. Chapter 16

Lance and the rest of the team, excluding Keith, were sitting at the dinning table.  
Lance was slightly annoyed that no one had said anything about Keith's absence when they were always so quick to pick on him when he was late but he understood that Keith needed to prepare himself.

Lance was feeling quite a bit of second hand nervousness and kept playing with his food instead of actually eating it. No one seemed to notice so it was fine.

Of course they wouldn't notice, they don't even want you here. Why would they waste their time paying attention to you?

Lance shook the thoughts away. That wasn't fair to Keith right now. He was going through such a hard time at the moment, he needed the attention right now, not him.

Just then the door swished open, revealing an anxious Keith. He was fiddling with his hands and kept chewing what Lance assumed to be the inside of his cheek.  
"Hey Keith." Lance waved and smiled reassuringly to him.  
Keith looked at him and exhaled heavily while the others looked up from their conversations to watch the exchange.  
"I have something to tell you guys."

This bought him everyone's attention. Even Pidge looked up from her laptop and pushed up the glasses on her nose.

Lance nodded encouragingly to Keith who stopped fiddling with his hands only to start fiddling with his jacket.  
"Well erm. I- I'm Er...." He exhaled again, "I'm... part Galra.."

Keith looked down at the floor, biting his lip anxiously and tensing his shoulders- expecting the worst reactions.  
Lance smiled up at Keith but both of them were disheartened by their friends reactions.   
They had all stood up which caused Keith to flinch a little, although none of them seemed to have noticed it.  
Hunk cautiously stepped back while Pidge looked at him calculatingly as if she was dissecting him in her mind.  
Coran stepped behind Hunk, Shiro didn't react since he already knew but still looked a little unnerved.

Then there was Allura. She looked downright furious.  
Lance stood up to stand next to Keith, who was shaking slightly.  
"Princess-"  
"No! You stay out of this paladin! And you! I trusted you! Now it makes so much sense! YOU'VE BEEN LYING TO US THIS WHOLE TIME! YOUR A MONSTER AND A FREAK. I ORD-"  
"Princess..." Lance growled. He was also shaking but not from fear. Instead it was anger.  
Allura ignored him.  
"I want you off my ship. I will not tolerate a lying, murderer on board. This is an Altean ship. Do you find it funny?! Staying on a ship that used to be filled with people! People you killed! I can't bel-"  
"ALLURA! Shut up!"  
She went quiet, surprised at Lance's outburst and his use of her name.  
Lance turned to Keith and put a hand on his shoulder. He leaned in to whisper in his ear.  
"Keith I left my jacket in my room. Could you go get it for me? I'll handle this okay?"  
Lance smiled to Keith and squeezed his shoulder. Keith nodded silently and rushed out the room.

As soon as the door closed, Lance turned back to Allura.  
"What the fuck, Allura! He obviously just found out so he hasn't been lying. The only people he's killed are Galra soldiers. He's no more a murderer than you are.   
You know what's sad? I actually kinda expected this from you! I hate to see that I was right about how much of a racist bitch you could be."  
Lance paused to exhale, desperately trying to calm himself down. His accent was coming out a lot more now.  
"You know people like you literally drive people to suicide on earth."

"He is related to killers! He had the same aggression and violence as they do! He's a danger!"

"That's your logic!? If we all lived by that logic I wouldn't be able to stand Pidge or like half my family!? People don't chose their race. It's not something that's anyone's fault. You need to get other that. What do you think we're going to do after we beat Zarkon?! Just kill all the Galra!? GROW UP! We have to be able to work with them, especially now that we've met the blades. So get over your pettiness! This isn't a game! And if any of you agree with her then you don't deserve to be Paladins."  
By the end Lance was absolutely seething and stormed out of the room before he broke something.

He rushed to his room to find Keith kneeling on the floor in his room clutching his jacket desperately to his chest, sobbing.  
Lance didn't hesitate to drop to the floor and pull Keith towards him.

They sat there with Keith sobbing into Lance again and Lance rubbing his back.  
"Hey... it's okay. We've made sure Allura lets you stay. You don't have to leave and the rest of the team agree. You've more than earned your place here."

Keith looked up to him with his red, puffy eyes, tear stained cheeks and wet, long eyelashes.  
He was about to say something when they were interrupted by a knocking at the door.  
"Lance? Open up we need to talk."  
Shiro.

Lance mentally prepared himself for the scolding and stood up.  
He offered Keith a hand and pulled him up and then moved to open the door.

It swooshed open to reveal Shiro and Pidge. Pidge waved at the two of them smiling at Keith.  
"I think we'll need some more supplies so I'm sending you three to a nearby planet. Hopefully you can cool off a bit when you get there."   
Pidge groaned, "Was that really necessary? It's not even funny." Shiro just shrugged before nodding to Keith and walking off.

Lance raised an eyebrow before glancing at Keith. Keith just sighed still keeping himself as small as possible, "Which... lion are we going in?"

"Green." Pidge chirped back, "I'll meet you in the hangar. You'll need your armor so I'll leave you two in peace," She blew a mock kiss to them and smirked before turning and running down the hall yelling, "Later lovebirds!"


	17. Chapter 17

While they flew in Green, Lance was still noticeably angry. Keith still wasn't completely sure about what had happened but Pidge was still treating him the same as before so that was good.

He still didn't know why Lance was angry. 'Please. Please. Please, don't let it be because of me.'   
He'd asked Pidge and she said she'd explain later so now he was just desperately trying to crush his anxiety or at least hide it away somewhere else for him to deal with later.

Pidge had been gushing about the planet they were visiting for a while now. Lance had been staring at the projections for a while now. He hadn't said anything, just stared.

Pidge and Keith talked for a while, although it was more Pidge talking animatedly and Keith nervously adding things every so often, he was still kind of unnerved after breakfast.

There weren't any sentient inhabitants but the planet was filled with edible vegetation and occasionally would host markets and other gatherings.   
Because it was uninhabited, the Galra mostly stayed clear of it since it wasn't really much use to them other than the occasional emergency stops when they were low on food, which were rare in themselves.

The planet was constantly covered in a layer of snow and at least half of it would be snowing at any given time.  
That may have been another reason the Galra avoided it. They really didn't seem to like the cold. 

When they got there, Shiro had sent them a message about how the supplies really weren't necessary and they could just enjoy their time on the planet. 

Pidge lowered Greens ramp and the three of them trooped out.  
Well they almost did.

Keith and Pidge has gotten about 50 meters when they realized Lance wasn't with them.  
They turned back to see him still at the ramp, eyeing the snow nervously.  
They watched as he prodded it with his foot and took off his helmet.

"Um Lance? What are you doing?"  
He looked up at her and sheepishly muttered something.  
"Er what? Lance we can't hear you when you mumble like that."  
Lance sighed, "I'm never seen snow before... is this what it's normally like?"

The two of them looked back at him expecting some kind of punchline but all they received was a nervous look in his eyes.  
"Wait you're serious? How have you never seen snow before?"  
Lance shifted uncomfortably, "I grew up in the poorer parts of Cuba so my family didn't really have a tv or anything and then when I moved to America it was still too hot for snow.."

Keith was a little shocked, he lived in a desert and even he still managed to experience snow.   
After a slight pause, Keith crouched down and scooped up some snow.   
"Well, we might as well teach you a bit about it then." He smirked as Pidge's eyes glowed with a childish passion. Lance looked confused for a second but quickly pieced it together and smirked as he ran to take shelter behind one of Green's legs.

"You can't escape, Lancey Lance." Pidge cackled.

Keith hit Pidge in the side and ran off trying to dodge Lance's attacks.

It didn't really work.

Lance hit them both repeatedly, with surprising accuracy for someone who's never had a snowball fight, all the while buzzing about how the snow felt.  
Pidge was squealing and Keith was laughing.   
They'd all completely forgotten about what had happened backs at the castle.

By the end of the fight they were all cold and soggy. They trenched back into Green to enjoy warmth of the lion. 

Pidge changed into some of the spare clothes she had onboard while the red and blue Paladins just stripped down to their under armor and curled up in the many blankets their gremlin had stowed away.

As Pidge flew, the three of them talked about the snow back on earth, Christmas and their childhoods.  
"Hey Keith, If you live in a desert then how'd you know what snow was like?"  
Lance was laid on the floor with his arms folded, propping him up.

Keith shrugged, "Well I was in the foster system for most of my life so I guess I just traveled a lot.."  
Keith looked away from them and fiddled with his blanket.  
"Hmm that makes sense.. Sorry man."

Pidge broke the awkward silence and declared what she estimated to be the date on earth. Apparently it was around late September, either the 22nd of 23rd.  
They'd been in space for about 5 months apparently. It hadn't felt like it, but they definitely were pretty used to it by now though.

When they landed on the castle, the three of them were still chatting happily. Keith's laughter rang out and his eyes shone with their usual banter, although it had definitely died down a bit and wasn't as mean or harsh as before.

In the hangar they were met with Hunk who promptly left with Pidge.

Of course they wouldn't invite you Lance, they don't want you.

Lance shook away the thoughts and left with Keith to the training room.  
The two of them lost count of how many levels they'd cleared together by the time Hunk came and got them for dinner.

Hunk smiled calmly to Keith and led the two of them to the dining room. The Samoan was beyond ashamed of how he reacted. Growing up, him and Lance had both suffered from racism a lot when they were younger, even a bit at the garrison. So it absolutely disgusted him how he and the others had reacted, particularly Allura.

Hunk and Lance talked on their way there. Keith occasionally added to the conversation but they could all tell how tense he was getting the closer they got to the dining room.


	18. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's the weblum episode but with an added Klancey scene between Hunk and Keith (It makes sense I swear) so it's pretty Keith-centric. You don't really need to know what happens in the episode its mainly side scenes.  
> So I'm not great at writing Kangst, Langst just feels more natural and relatable to me so it's easier. Since lance is actually my favorite they'll probably be more Langst but I'll still try to do more Kangst.

"So, what's the plan?", Hunk asked. Keith watched quietly from the side of the room as Lance ran to the center of the group and began to explain the plan using over the top expressions and hand gestures. He was obviously super hyper. 

They had spent the last few hours, since they had gotten back fro their trip, planning their attack on Zarkon's main ship with the blades. Hunk had fallen asleep within the first hour while Shiro, Pidge, Allura and Kolivan bounced ideas off each other. He, Lance and Coran occasionally chipped in which Pidge corrected any ideas they had from her own seat, where she was curled up on.

Keith smiled softly to himself, something about Lance's dramatic and happy nature always seemed to cheer him up.

As the Cuban babbled on, Keith stole a glance around the room. Hunk and Pidge seemed to be amused while Kolivan and Antok, the other blade member that had accompanied Kolivan, both wore unreadable expressions. 

Shiro and Allura seemed to be looking at Lance disapprovingly. 

His good mood was ruined.

Keith zoned out while they discussed what they were doing next. Usually he would pay more attention but he wasn't really in the mood for Allura's remarks or obvious glares. Besides Shiro would probably catch him up later if he missed too much.

Later, him and Hunk were in the yellow lion. They'd have a while until they got to wherever the weblum tracker was leading them since they were in the yellow lion. They were meant to collect scaultrite from a space worm. Just causal, everyday Paladin stuff. 

They had been in comfortable silence for a while until Hunk started up humming to himself.  
"Hey Keith?"  
Keith hummed back in acknowledgment.  
Hunk looked back at him before looking back at his controls.  
"What would you say yours and Lance's relationship is?"  
Keith's face warmed subconsciously. 

If he had been eating anything he would have probably choked.

He thought for a moment before answering,  
"Well. I guess I found him annoying at first, but... not so much anymore. I'd say we're friends- he might even my best friend..."  
Keith's chest ached and he unconsciously reached up to clutch it, frowning to himself.  
"Nah ah. I'm his best friend. I'll fight yo- uhhh are- are you okay?"  
Keith looked up at him startled.  
"I- I don't know. My chest hurt and my heart started speeding up. Am I... having a heart attack...?"  
Hunk looked panicked for a second then like something clicked in his mind he started chuckling to himself.  
"Huh? Hey! What's so funny?! I could be dying!"  
Hunk wiped his eyes and calmed down a bit.  
"No no. You'll be fine." Hunk burst into laughter again.  
"What! Then what happened?! And how can you-"  
"Sshhh." Hunk held a finger to Keith's mouth in a shushing motion. "Aw looks like our emo's finally growing up." He chucked at Keith's incredulous face and carried on, "It's called feelings Keith. You," He pointed his right index finger in the Red Paladin's direction, "-have feelings for lance."

Keith froze in disbelief while Hunk burst into laughter again.  
"Wha- how can you-"  
Hunk cut him off again, "How about I tell you stories from when me and him were growing up. It might make your feelings a bit clearer."

Keith paused, thinking before, slowly nodding. Hunk beamed and began.

Hunk spent about ten minutes going over embarrassing moments, like the time Lance managed to walked into an automatic door and then the next time they came he was super cautious. When he managed to get through the door, like a normal person, he did a weird victory dance and proceeded to fall down the stairs.

They both laughed and Hunk dived into another story, this time about the time he managed to burn down the kitchen in the garrison.

Keith remembered the kitchen incident and how at first the staff had thought some one had planted a bomb of some sort but it had turned out to be a student. Keith didn't remember anyone ever being caught though but it didn't surprise him that it was Lance.

"I remember, back before we went to the garrison, Lance was always either studying, working or looking after his siblings. Me and Dani had to help him make dinner a lot just so we could see him."

Keith smiled. Lance did always seem to be doing something even if they didn't know what it was. Allura and Shiro usually just saw it as laziness since Lance usually wouldn't tell them what he had been doing and they already knew he hadn't been at the training deck since either Shiro or Keith was always there. So they often assumed he was lying or it was just nothing important.

"You're blushing."  
"Wh- shut up."  
————————————————————

"Why does Allura get to take a leisurely visit to the Balmera while we have to fly into the belly of a giant space worm to get scaultrite?" Hunk groaned while Keith lent against a side behind him.

"You heard Coran. Building a huge teludav isn't easy. Everyone has a job to do and this is ours."  
"But I always get the worst jobs. Go to a Galra-occupied planet to get my lion. Go to a Galra-occupied Balmera to get a crystal. Go into a belly of a beast with the only Galra alien team member."

"I'm not an alien." That hurt. Keith really didn't want to think about this.

"Well, you're kind of an alien. You're way more alien than me. You're at least some alien. I'm-I'm none alien."  
Keith sighed and moved towards the front of the cockpit. "Let's just concentrate on the job here."

"Yeah." Hunk looked back to Keith after a second, not even trying to change the subject, "Was-Was your mom the alien? Your grandpa? How Galra are you?"   
"I don't know."  
"Did the Blade of Marmora, like, teach you the secret handshake, or something?"   
Keith was starting to get frustrated. "No. No one said anything."  
"The Blade of Marmora... they're real tight-lipped, aren't they? I get that your society is secret, but is everything a secret?"   
Keith snapped . "Okay, look, it's bad enough that Allura hates me now. Can you just lay off?"   
Hunk seemed to realize Keith's discomfort and took a gentler approach, "Allura doesn't hate you. You just need to give her time to accept the fact that you're Galra, the race that destroyed her entire planet and all of her people." He frowned and blinked. "Yeah, she might hate you a little bit."  
Keith sighed "Let's just watch the video Coran uploaded and stay on task. We need to find out how to collect this stuff."


	19. Chapter 19

Lance, Shiro and Pidge had all flown together in the Blue lion. Shiro and Pidge has talked together, occasionally Lance involved himself but was often too busy mentally talking Blue.

Thankfully Shiro hadn't lectured him at all about the joke he played on Allura before. He honestly didn't want to relive that, not only was it embarrassing and disgusting but it also just reminded him of how much they all hated him. How much fun they found in his discomfort. He tried not to dwell on those thoughts, Blue helped, until they reached the site of their mission.

They were at Beta Traz to break out a genius, Slav, that the blade had recommended to them. Pidge and Shiro were waiting in Blue's mouth waiting to be shot out by Lance.

The control panel beside him beeped.  
"All right, guys, we're ready to fire."

"Be careful, you've only got one shot." Pidge's voice came floating through the comm.

"Don't worry, Pidge, I'm an excellent shot." Lance chirped back.

"You are?" 

That hurt.  
Of course they doubt you. They doubt you more than you doubt yourself.

"Yes! That's my thing!"

Shooting was one of the only things he knew was good at.

"Since when?"   
See. You're worthless. Useless to them.  
"Just get ready."  
Lance shot them out of his lions mouth and they flew towards the base, leaving the Blue Paladin to his thoughts.

They don't need you. They never have and never will. They don't even want you here.   
The mice have accomplished more than you.

Lance was brought out of his thoughts when Pidge's voice came over the Comms.   
"Beginning phase two of the plan. I'm blocking the sensors. Lance, you've only got four doboshes to scan the base and land your lion before they're back online."

"Copy that. Initializing sonic scan now."  
Blue roared and sent out the scan.

"Sonic scan complete. Uploading the data."

"Perfect. We're right on top of your entry point. Get to my location. Hurry, you've got 60 ticks."

"On my way."  
The lion docked in the prison and he made his way out, listening to Shiro through the Comms.  
"Okay, phase two complete. Welcome to Beta Traz." Shiro glanced at him quickly then turned back to Pidge.  
See. They don't even want to look at you. 

Lance shook his head. He was being irrational. He would get uncomfortable if they stared at him, and they had more important things to do anyway.

"I've compiled the data from the Blue Lion's sonic scan and created this map. It appears the prison is comprised of three concentric levels. Each level is showing different types of security. That's weird. The Blade of Marmora said this prison was made just for Slav, but I'm showing two cells. Who else would be held here?"

"I'm guessing a space ninja. Or maybe someone with magical powers? You know, just spit-balling here. I don't know. Let's just keep tossing out ideas."  
Lance made wild gestures as he talked, hoping to make them all a little less tense, he knew being back in a Galra prison wouldn't be great for Shiro.

It didn't work. They just looked at him, disappointment written on their faces.  
And then they just turned away.   
That hurt but lance couldn't let it show, not now.  
"Can you get a visual on the cells?"

"No, not from here. And even if I could, we don't know what Slav looks like."

"Then we're just going to have to check both."

"Dibs on the closer one! What? My legs are tired."

Pidge sighed, "I'll go to the command center to try and access the security system." The cold feeling was settling hard in his stomach and hurting his chest but his smile still shone.

"Let's get moving."

————————————————————

"Huh?" Lance has come to a stop outside a large sturdy looking door, "Pidge, you have any idea how I'm gonna get through these giant doors?"

"Lance, be quiet. Someone's coming."

Lance ran and hid behind in an opening in the wall, panting slightly,

Be quiet, Lance.

"Okay, but seriously, those are some heavy-duty doors." Shiro pointed out from his end of the prison.

"The door over here scanned that guy's face." Lance whispered to them, hoping to be helpful and lessen their disappointment at least a little.

"Oh, facial recognition. Shiro, hold tight. Lance, you're gonna need to get a scan of his face."

Lance and Shiro replied in unison, "Copy that." 

Lance watched as the warden exited the cell and began walking away. Using his gauntlet, he got a quick scan of his face, having to shrink even further into the wall to avoid his searching gaze.  
Lance inhaled deeply and sighed, "Face on the way, Pidge."

"Creating 3D render. Sending to you."

Lance jumped down and crept into the room. Making sure to make his actions look comical at times, hopefully to calm whoever the prisoner was. It really didn't matter who it was- no one deserved to be stuck here so even if it wasn't Slav he'd still try to help them out.

Inside ,he could hear crunching and growling coming from a dark corner of the room. Apparently the Galra didn't think good lighting was a priority.

Lance shrieked slightly as the figure drew themselves up to their full height, "Are you--?"  
He cleared his throat, "Are you Slav?"

"Yup."  
Lance sighed in relief before looking up at the captive with what he hoped was a reassuring expression.  
"Don't worry, Slav. I'm here to rescue you. I'm with Voltron. Do you know Voltron?"

"Yup."

"Great. Then you know what the Blue Lion is."

"Yup."  
Lance smiled slightly at his accomplishment, even if it was small. It was good that they were talking, even if it just seemed to be the one words so far. He was just glad he at least contributed in some way.

Lance and Shiro both reported in perfect sync, "Pidge, I've got Slav."

"What?"

"I said I have Slav." Shiro seemed mildly annoyed, probably thinking that this was some sort of joke.

"No, I have Slav. Wait, hold on. Tell me the truth. Are you Slav?" Lance kept his hand on his Comms as he turned back to 'Slav'.  
"Yup."

"We don't have time for this. You're just gonna have to bring both of them back." Pidge seemed annoyed as well, he was probably distracting her from searching for Matt. He was already feeling bad for letting them down.

"Okay. Give us the route out of here."

"Yeah, we're ready to go, too."  
"Yup."  
"Hello?"  
"Pidge! ....Lance, looks like we're on our own. We've gotta get back to Pidge."

"Wait, what? I have no idea where I'm going. Slav, do you know how to get back?"  
"Yup."  
"What am I talking about? Of course, you do. You're a genius."  
Lance really didn't think Shiro had the wrong person but he also didn't want to not believe the person he was already saving. Either way, they shouldn't leave them with the Galra. Who knows what they would do to them.   
Well probably Shiro, but Lance didn't want to cause him any unnecessary pain.  
"Are you sure you know where you're going?"  
Lance had turned the Comms off by now and had been thinking of the best ways to keep 'Slav' calm. He guessed he'd most likely been tortured at some point so he didn't want to trigger any flashbacks or panic attacks.

As they rounded a corner, they found another rover- bot. This one was definitely not controlled by Pidge. Lance was about to shoot it when 'Slav' growled and leapt forward smashing the droid apart.

"Whoa! You're really savage! No wonder the Marmorites think you're so awesome. That's what I'm calling the Blade of Marmora. "Marmorites."" Lance chuckles to himself, "That sound good?"

"Yup."

"Great minds." Lance smiled at him. Maybe talking with him was actually a lot more enjoyable than he thought it would be. Sure he'd been talking with Keith a lot more often and that was calming but they hadn't really talked since dinner the day before. 

Lance's heart ached just thinking about it. 

Other than hanging out with Keith a lot more lately, his free time was pretty much the same. As in, he was usually on his own, training or exploring or something. He hung out with Pidge and Hunk from time to time and could always rely on Coran as a confidante but he was usually too busy.

After their minor set back, they carried on with their route.  
"Hey since you're gonna be staying with us awhile, you might as well know a bit about everyone.  
Pidge is the hacker of our group. Shiro's our awesome leader."  
"Yup."   
"Hunk's our mechanic. He's also a chef and just a pretty cool dude to hang out with." Lance smiled warmly, thinking about his best friend.  
"Yup."  
"And Keith is always doing things like flying into asteroid fields and black holes and cool junk like that." Lance turned his head a little, hoping to cover the light blush on his cheeks.  
"Yup."  
"And I thought I was the team's sharpshooter, but I guess no one else thinks that. Maybe I don't have a thing." Lance stopped in his tracks. His smile fading completely.  
"Yup."  
"You don't have to agree with me so quickly. They wouldn't keep me on the team if I didn't contribute in some way, would they?"  
"Yup."  
They only keep you so they can form Voltron. That's it.

"Maybe you're right. Maybe I'm just a fifth wheel. Seventh if you count Coran and Allura. That's a horrible wheel to be."  
"Yup"   
Lance sniffed slightly before looking up and leading them both forward.

Soon Pidge's voice cracked through the Comms, "Okay, sorry about that. I'm back. I'll find you a new route, Shiro."

"Yeah, can you tell me where I am?"

"Just a sec. Pulling it up now. Uh, I don't see an alternate route, Shiro."  
Pidge gasped, "Lance, look out!"

"Quick, somebody's coming.   
Lance scurried to hide behind a pillar bit quickly noticed that 'Slav' wasn't with him, "What are you doing? Are you trying to get us caught?" A strong feeling of panic and dread were starting to set in quickly replaced by guilt. This alien was probably petrified right now- he had no idea what they'd been through.  
"Yup."  
"I've found you."  
Lance gulped, broken from his trance by what he assumed to be the Wardens voice.  
"Stay away from my friend!" He darted In front of the captive with his blaster at the ready.

"There's your kidnapper. Put the prison on lock down!"

An alarm stared blaring. That was convenient- for the Warden, not Lance.

Lance shot at the warden and ran after 'Slav' as the ceiling began shooting foam at them.  
"Pidge, you've gotta shut off this foam for me!"  
"On it! Huh? Matt?"  
Lance kept running dodging foam as he went.  
"Pidge!"

Pidge yelped, "Sorry! Just reversing the targeting system, and" Lance could hear her giggling over the Comms, "This ought to slow him down."  
Pathetic. She's trying to find her family not babysit you.

The Warden grunted from behind them, Lance assumed he'd been hit by the foam.

The Warden growled from his foam cocoon, "Come back here! Find out where they're headed! Lock down all exits!"

Pidge deactivated the gravity for Shiro while they were running, so he had to climb on top of 'Slav' and propel them forward with his jet pack. As he rounded another corner he was met with Shiro and the other prisoner.   
"Oh, wow, you have Laika. The warden will not be happy about that." The real Slav chattered from around Shiro's neck.  
"Who's Laika?"  
"She's the Warden's pet yupper."  
"Wait, what?" Lance gasped as his chest plummeted. He could already hear the lecture.   
"You're an animal?"  
"Yup."  
"Oh, I see where the confusion was for you."  
Lance felt like he was going to be sick. How could he mess up this bad.   
Screw up. How did you ever think something as worthless as you could do anything right.

The four of them, minus Pidge, stood at the hangar doors. They slid open to reveal a line of sentries waiting for them outside Blue.

As the sentries fired on them, Shiro and Lance activated their shields.  
Shiro gave our orders while they ran forward.  
Laika pounced on a few sentries tearing them apart while the Cuban easily shot down any around them.  
Just as he was about to shoot the last one, Shiro took them down instead.  
"I had him!" He could see Blue's particle barrier came down in his peripheral.  
"Let's go. Slav!" Shiro began walking towards the former prisoner, who came out from his hiding place behind a few crates.  
"Be right with you!"  
"Slav!" The Warden sprung out from a door behind him like a jack in a box. Slav screamed and scurried to hide behind Shiro as the Warden jumped down to where Lance had been crouched just a few seconds ago.

The Warden grunted, "You steal my yupper and my prisoner?" He pressed some sort of button on his side, draining the purple vials on his shoulders, making his hands swell to an enormous size.  
"Okay, I'm ready-- What is that?"  
Pidge skidded to a stop behind the other paladins.  
"You're not going anywhere. And neither is the lion."  
Lance and Pidge screamed as he ran into them, attempting to tackle them. Luckily, they both managed to narrowly dodge him.   
Shiro jumped from the wall at him but only managed to get yeeted instead.  
The whole time the Blue Paladin was shooting steadily at him, but didn't seem to be doing any damage.

After disposing of Shiro, he turned his attention to the Cuban. He threw a large black crate at him, he dodged and flew up into the air with his jet pack still steadily shooting.   
The Warden, irritated, threw a hand up into the air to wrap around Lance.

The hand pressed both of his arms to his sides. He squeezed and the paladin felt cracking in his chest. His vision was going dark and he was struggling to make out what was going on. He wanted to scream but couldn't even seem to find the air to breath.  
Suddenly the pressure relented. Lance felt a rush of air on his face and then he came crashing into what he assumed to be Pidge and Shiro. The pain in his chest quickly reigniting.  
Before he had any chance to collect himself, he felt himself being pulled out of the hangar. Alarms blared, he was now somewhat aware of Pidge's screaming in his Comms.   
Unfortunately this situation reminded him all too much of the time he nearly got ejected out of the airlock on the castle. This time there wasn't any Keith to save him but he figured he'd be alright in the back of his mind.  
"No!"  
Shiro's shouting made him snap back to attention to see Slav being held back by the warden, the hangar doors steadily closing.  
"Wait, I got this. Come on..." He took a deep breath and fired.

Slav screamed as he was released and hurtled towards Pidge.

"Nice, Lance! That's why we bring our sharpshooter."

Lance swelled with pride, "Yup."   
The negativity in his head was still there but had been pushed back for a second by the rare thing that was a compliment.

Back in the lion, Pidge and Shiro were talking about everything Pidge had found out at the prison. Lance groaned as Slav inspected all his controls. He didn't want to say anything in case he interrupted the other two paladins, he also didn't want to bring any unnecessary attention to himself now that the happiness from the praise earlier had died down. He knew how much he'd messed up on the mission and he didn't really want a lecture right then. He also couldn't help but feel at least a little worried about his ribs, he really did need Coran to check it out when they got back.

But did he even deserve it. 

That was stupid. He can't help properly if he was injured, he'd b an eve bigger liability than he already was.

So instead his thoughts drifted to his friends in the Yellow lion. He knew the two of them would get along fine but he was worried about his secret coming out.   
It really could ruin everything for him right now.


	20. Chapter 20

"Are you trying to see if my skin is purple?" Keith looked back to Hunk to see him studying his face intently.  
"No."  
Keith glared threateningly as Yellow beeped.

Allura's panicked face popped up on the display.  
"Hunk, Keith, are you there? Can you hear me?"  
"Hunk and Keith here. What's going on, Princess?"  
"You must return to the castle! I need you!"  
"We're on our way."

Allura disappeared from their screen, presumably to call the others and open a wormhole. Within a minute or two a wormhole opened up and Hunk steered them towards it.  
As they came through, they were greeted with the voices of the others over the Comms.  
"Whoa! How is that thing operational? It doesn't have a head!"  
"I don't know, but I'm sure it has something to do with those crystals."  
"We can't worry about that now. We have to protect the castle."

They were back at the Balmera along with the Robeast from before. "How did we beat it last time?"

"We formed Voltron, then I stuck in my Bayard and shot it with my blaster right in its arm lasers. But that didn't stop it so then we had to punch it."

"So we're gonna need Voltron."

"But we only have two lions."

"Well, maybe we can form the legs and kick it? Whoa!" Lance swerved Blue away from attack.

"That new laser is much more powerful. We're definitely gonna need all the lions. Hunk, you distract it so we can fly into the castle. Once we get our lions out, we'll cover you so you can fly Keith in for Red." Shiro was leaning over Lance from where he was flying to make sure they could see him through their screen.

Lance quickly dropped off the other two in the Blue lions hangar and then bounded back out to join Hunk and Keith.  
He could hear Keith giving out instructions to Hunk and his yellow friend getting frustrated with him over the Comms when he decided to intervene. He shot at the beast to divert its attention as he talked to the others.  
"I'll distract it! Go get the Red Lion!"  
"Oh ho ho, good timing, Lance!"  
Lance smiled as he powered up Blue's blaster.  
He shot at it only for it to fire back at him, he dodged but instead the attack hit the Yellow lion.

He could hear his friends screams from behind him.

His stomach plummeted, he attacked the Robeast again with Pidge's help after quickly calling out to his friends. 

This is just like you. You only hurt everyone around you.

Shiro went to carry yellow back to the castle, only to have to leave them there as he got attacked again. Keith managed to call Red out to him and joined the fight, much more enthusiastic now that he didn't have to watch a much more inexperienced Pilot flying instead of him.

Eventually, they formed Voltron and took the Robeast down.  
The lions separated and flew back to their hangars.  
Lance's breathing was still a little difficult from where he was sat in his seat with the injury he got before.The attack would be tomorrow so he couldn't afford to be in a healing pod. He'd just have to check the damage and do as much as he could for now. From what he had gathered, he could breath just fine as long as he wasn't bending or putting pressure on his chest or ribs.

Grunting, he left Blue, her calming reassurance quickly being overrun by dread as he was met with Shiro outside his lion.  
"Oh um hey Shiro.?"  
Lance rubbed to back of his neck awkwardly, only just suppressing a wince from the stretch he was putting on his chest.  
"What was that?!"  
"Wha-"  
"You were supposed to cover hunk and Keith, and yet as soon as you take over they get hit. Not only that. That attack was going to hit you. You should have at least warned them before hand. You need to stop messing around and take this more seriously. That's how you messed up on the last mission. If-"

Lance started to zone out. He knew this would happen and he agreed with everything he said.  
How am I even a paladin. I'm so useless. 

Later that night, Lance was lying in bed. He'd just finished making sure all the others where asleep.  
Pidge was a little harsher today, telling him to leave her alone and Shiro complained at him for babying him but it was fine.  
That wasn't what was keeping him awake.  
He didn't think he'd have nightmares or anything but he was being kept up win a mix of fear and adrenaline.  
He desperately didn't want to mess up tomorrow.  
He knew he should probably sleep but he wasn't particularly tired so he pulled himself up and changed into some workout clothes him and Coran had managed to make out of the Altean fabricator they'd fixed.  
They were grey jogging bottoms and a skin tight black turtleneck, similar to the under armor.  
He pulled on his trainers and grabbed his bayard off the wall.  
As he stepped out of his room and made his way down the corridor, he was reminded of how empty his room was. It didn't have any decorations and was just pretty plain and boring. The only way you'd know someone actually slept their would be the products in the bathroom and the clothes in the cupboards.

Next time he went to the space mall, he'd definitely get more stuff, for everyone else too. From what he knew Pidge's room had the most personality and that was just because she couldn't clean to save her life.

As he neared the training room, he became aware of the sound of someone training in there.  
Lance sighed, knowing it was Keith.

The door swished open and he lent against it watching as Keith gracefully defeated the training bots.  
Lance made sure to keep quiet to ensure Keith didn't get distracted by him.  
As he finished the training sequence Keith called out to him, panting heavily and seeming not surprised that he was there, "Why are you up? Thought you needed your beauty sleep?"

Lance smiled at him and pushed off from the wall.  
"Bold of you to assume I could even need beauty sleep." Keith rolled his eyes, amused as Lance made his way towards him, "Couldn't sleep. Or didn't feel like it at least. You?"  
Keith paused before answering.  
"Um same I guess... do you wanna..?"  
Lance hummed, nodding as he activated his bayard. He came to a stop a little behind Keith and got into a fighting stance.  
Keith nodded and got back into his stance, they started the training sequence and fought until Keith tripped and the two of them lay on the floor panting and groaning.

Keith laughed as Lance tilted his head to watch him.  
Keith was rolled onto his side, still laughing.  
He wiped his face of the sweat gathering there and beamed at Lance.  
"Isn't it weird?" Lance just smiled back uncertainly as the Korean continued, "If tomorrow goes well, I might not see you for ages. Just a few months ago we couldn't even hold a conversation and now we could be about to die together. It's..... weird?"

Lance smiled, "Heh. I guess....It's kind of surreal. I-I hope, when this is over.. we can still see each other. Otherwise I'm gonna miss you. It sounds pretty bad but I almost don't want this to end yet."  
Keith propped himself up on his elbows, still watching his crush.  
"Mmm, I get what you mean. It's nice, being with you all. I- I don't want it to end yet."  
Keith looked away from Lance, who crawled over to him.  
"Hey, come here."  
Lance opened his arms up in a welcoming gesture. Keith smiled softly and gently accepted the hug. Lance lent into Keith's neck relishing the softness of his hair.

It was strange. Keith was always switching between being soft and sharp. From his smile and hair to even how he interacted with people he was close to- he would be one of the softest people he'd ever met and Lance loved it. It made so eternally grateful that the boy had allowed him into his life and that he was able to experience moments like this.

They stayed like that for a bit, enjoying the comfort of each other's company, until they eventually decided to go and try to sleep again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soon I'll be able to write more of my own parts and actually get more creative. It sounds bad but I really can't wait until Shiro 'disappears'.


	21. Chapter 21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is at the end of season 2

After the battle, they all landed in their hangars, aside from Keith, who carried black into its own hangar.   
Rushing out of their lions, they raced to the black lion. An unsettling feeling resting in their stomachs.   
Slavs words from during the battle rang eerily through Lance's mind, "Now, there's no reality where we all get out alive!"

Lance had tried to brush it off but Shiro hadn't been responding and Voltron shouldn't have just come apart like that.

Black allowed them in and the four younger paladins sprung into the cockpit.

It was empty.

Shiro was gone.

Lance's mind went blank. He didn't know how long they stood their but it was long enough for Allura and Coran to burst in, celebrating.  
Their happy expressions dropped when they saw them.  
Pidge was huddled close to Hunk, both sobbing, Lance stood away to one side, silent tears spilling down his now pale face.

But Keith was the worst. 

He was openly sobbing, hugging himself in an attempt to ground himself, mumbling incoherent pleas.

Coran and Allura respectfully kept their distance, neither of them wanting to say anything, afraid that bringing attention to it would make it so much more real.

Lance was the first to come to his senses.

He drew in a shaky breath and led Allura, Coran, Pidge and Hunk all outside the lion.  
In a calm, quiet voice he started talking to the others.  
He asked Hunk and Coran to make everyone some food while Pidge and Allura looked for any answers.

They all silently agreed. Hunk and Coran heading off to the kitchen, quietly trying to comfort each other.  
Pidge left for greens hangar, planning to talk to Green to try and find out what was happening.  
Allura made her way back to the bridge to tell Kolivan and Slav what had happened and to try and search for Shiro's energy signature.

Lance turned back to the Black lion. He knew Keith would try to distance himself from everyone else but neither if them really wanted him to be alone at the moment.

Back in the lion, Keith was now curled up in the floor. His helmet discarded on the floor at the other side of the cockpit.  
He was bawling his eyes out and clawing at his hair.  
Lance quietly sat down beside him and pulled him into a hug.  
Keith shook against him not even trying to hide his tears anymore.  
Lance rubbed his back and carded his other hand through his soft hair.

Keith melted into the hug and wrapped his arms around Lance, clutching at his back.  
Lance had taken his upper armor off before he came in to comfort Keith and grabbed Keith's jacket from Red's hangar.

Still stroking Keith's hair with one hand, he began to difficult task of helping Keith out of his armor. Halfway through, Keith seemed to realize what he was doing and got the rest off him.

Reaching behind him, the Cuban grabbed his friends jacket and pulled it on him.

Keith was just sniffling now but didn't show any signs of wanting to let go of Lance and, although he didn't say anything about it, Lance was glad. He needed some comfort as well right now. 

Sighing, Lance changed his position slightly so he could pick Keith up bridal style.

Keith didn't show any signs of objection and simply lent more into him.  
The Red Paladin had his eyes closed but Lance knew he was awake.  
"We're going to find him. But first you need to sleep, you've done more than any of us today. While you're asleep, we'll start looking, okay. I'll bring you some food too for when you wake up."

By now they'd reached Keith's room, the Blue Paladin quickly put in the code and brought Keith to his bed and wrapped him up in some blankets.

Keith was already drifting off but the Blue Paladin stayed until he was sure he was asleep before heading off to the kitchen to make a few rounds.

Hunk and Coran hadn't made much food but they were comforting each other so he wasn't complaining.

After talking them both into going to bed, Lance grabbed four bowls of food goo and continued on his journey.

He passed by the training room to see an unusual sight.  
Kolivan was in full blade armor and attacking the training bots with two blades.  
Lance sighed, he knew one of the blades that came with them hadn't made it back. Apparently Thace met a similar fate.

Lance knocked on the door frame to let Kolivan know he was there.  
The blade ended the training sequence and turned to face him. A mixture of surprise and curiosity flashed in his eyes for a second before returning to their dark, unreadable default.  
Lance bowed his head respectfully.  
"Did you wish to use the training room blue Paladin?"   
Lance looked up and smiled warmly.  
"No. I just came to bring you some dinner. I heard what happened and I really am sorry."  
Kolivan searched his eyes for any hint of insincerity before nodding curtly.  
"We knew the risks."   
He took the bowl from Lance, watching it curiously.  
"Um it tastes a bit weird but... it fills you up. I'll see you later."

Lance nodded his head and left the room, continuing down the hallway.

Next, he made his way to the Green hangar where he found Pidge and Slav.  
Slav seemed to be babbling away and mainly just frustrating Pidge.  
Lance quickly talked Slav into going to enjoy his food goo in his own room for a bit, he reluctantly agreed but left anyway. It seemed, despite his prideful nature, even Slav could notice when he was going too far.

Pidge carries on fiddling with her computer.  
Lance set down the food goo beside her.  
"I know I'm not going to be able to convince you to stop so what can I get you to make it a little easier for you."

Pidge looked at him questioningly but quickly asked for a few blankets, pillows and for him to lock the door behind him when he was done to hopefully keep Slav out.  
Lance smiled and complied, making her a little nest around her computer.   
Pidge drifted off while eating her food and Lance tucked her in, still making sure to lock the door.

He just had one stop left now.

Lance mentally braced himself and set off to the bridge.

Allura was hunched her pedestals. A map, similar to the one she brought up when she first told them about the lions, was covering the room.

Lance came to a stop next to her, holding the bowl out in a peace offering,  
"Did you find anything?"  
Allura rolled her eyes and grumbled something in Altean, "No Lance, I haven't now can you go bother someone else."

Allura glared at him, briefly looking at the food goo in his hands, before looking back at the star chart.

Lance sighed softly, "Everyone else is asleep, except Slav and Kolivan, and honestly you shouldn't even be standing right now.   
Coran already said the strain could kill you. You need to rest."

Allura glared at him again, deactivating the start chart.  
"And why should I take advice from you? You're the most useless person here, you never do anything helpful and now you think you have the right to order me around! How the others tolerate you I'll never know!"

Lance flinched slightly at her words but stayed calm.  
"Allura-"  
Smack   
"Don't you dare call me that!"  
They both stood there in stunned silence for a few seconds.  
Lance reached up to touch his face, a dark red mark imprinted against his caramel skin.

Allura's hands covered her mouth.  
"Paladin, I-"  
Lance smiled softly at her, this time it was obvious it didn't reach his eyes.  
He removed his hand from his face and handed Allura the bowl.  
"Come on. You need to sleep."

They walked in silence to Allura's room. She slipped inside, glanced at him apologetically, who just continued on his way to his own room.

Only once he was there, did he allow himself to break down.   
He curled up against the door with his arms wrapped around his face and the occasional sobbing sound breaking through.

"Why- Why Shiro? It should have been me... I'm so useless."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally I get some more freedom. I don't actually know how long Shiro was gone for but I'm gonna say it was about a month until Keith becomes Black Paladin and another couple of months until they actually find him again. Plus I think there's still a lot of time between seasons 3 and 4 so I'll definitively write some side stories for that too. Also Lance's dark thoughts are in first person more often from now since he's believing them more and more.  
> I re-watched season 2 today and realized that Slav and Kolivan would still have been on board afterwards so I wanted to include them a bit.


	22. Chapter 22

Day one.  
After he'd cried for a bit, Lance sat huddled against the door, enjoying deep breaths of air.  
Sighing, he stood up and checked the time, it was around 1:47am. He made his way to his bathroom and washed his face carefully, he didn't want the others to waste time worrying about him.  
Why would they worry about someone as worthless as you?

Lance rinsed his hands and dried his face. Back in his room, he changed into his normal clothes, pulling his jacket close around him.  
The jacket had completely lost Dani's scent, now it just smelled of Lance, much to his disappointment.

He sighed again and dragged himself out of his room, back to the kitchen.  
Lance didn't really need as much sleep as the others, partly because he was part Altean, but mostly just out of practice from back when he lived with his family. He also knew Keith wasn't much of a morning person, despite usually being one of the first up. It wasn't a problem in any attacks or drills since he seemed to be able to make himself completely alert at a moments notice.

Even though Lance had made him go to sleep before everyone else, he guessed he would still sleep the most. He really had exhausted himself on their mission.  
He'd also probably want a while to collect himself before talking to anyone.

With that in mind, Lance entered the kitchen and made his way to the food goo machine.  
He knew Hunk could make him something better but he didn't want to wake him yet. Lance put the goo in a bowl, grabbed a spoon, and headed to Shiro's room.

Lance and Coran had given him a bottle of sleeping pills. The prescription wasn't anything specifically for Shiro. Anyone could use them safely.  
Lance grabbed them and a glass, which he filled up with water, and placed on a tray with the food goo and began to make his way back to Keith's room. When he turned the last corner, he had to abruptly stop to keep himself from walking into Kolivan.

The Blade leader seemed startled for a second before glancing at the tray in his hands.  
Lance smiled slightly.  
"Er morning, sir?"  
Kolivan nodded, "I apologize if I startled you, Blue Paladin, I thought you were all resting?"  
Lance tilted his head from side to side and responded, "Well, the others are asleep. Keith hasn't eaten anything all day so I'm just bringing him something for when he wakes up."

He nodded and held out his hands, Lance glanced at him questioningly.  
"You will struggle to open the door without any spare hands."  
Lance chuckled lightly and passed the tray to him.

They walked together in silence until they reached Keith's door.  
Lance opened it quickly, taking the tray from Kolivan and, placing it on a table that extended from the wall, and leaving the room to meet the Blade outside.

Kolivan invited him to train with him to which Lance quickly obliged, he wanted to find out a bit more about the Blade.  
They trained together for about an hour. Kolivan was easily a better warrior than all of them, including Keith, Shiro and Allura.

Afterwards Kolivan complimented him on his accuracy and left in search of Slav, they would be leaving soon and he wanted to make sure they had everything.

Lance took a shower in the training room and then made his way to the dining room.  
Hunk was up by now and was making everyone some breakfast.  
Coran was there too, no one else came to the dining room so Lance just focused   
on lightening the mood for the others.

A few of the lions seemed to be quite damaged so they planned in spending the day fixing them up.  
Lance nodded along to their planning, adding small bits of banter and picking the conversation up anytime they stumbled on an awkward pause or drifted off in thought.

———————————————————

Keith woke up warm and feeling wonderfully refreshed, he didn't get to enjoy the feeling long enough though, as the memories of the day before came crashing back.

Keith nuzzled his face back into the pillows. He didn't want to get up and face reality just yet but also desperately wanted to get to finding his brother.

Shiro.

He was gone.

Keith sprang out of bed and raced to the Red lion's hangar, completely missing the tray of food in his room. He was still in his under armor from the day before since he hadn't really had a chance to change.

As he ran down the hall, he skidded into something tall and orange.

"Oh Number 4! Lance will be glad to know you're up and about- where are you going?"  
Keith ignored him and rushed past him to Red's hangar.

Hunk and Lance were already in there, making repairs and talking in hushed tones.   
Lance looked up as the door opened.  
"Hey Coran, can you- oh Keith? Hey.. Er."  
Hunk had looked up now too, Keith looked over at what they were doing as he caught his breath.  
"W-what are you doing to Red?"  
Keith looked at them suspiciously while Hunk smiled softly and lance took a cautious step back from Red.

"Red got damaged a bit in the fight. We need to make repairs before we can start properly searching."  
Hunk scratched the side of his neck.

Lance looked between the two of them eventually setting on Keith, who looked like he could explode at any minute.  
He stepped towards him and began pulling him out of the room.

"Um, Lance?"  
"Yep"  
"What are you doing?"  
Lance stopped, the door to the hangar closed as Coran entered, leaving them out in the hallway.

"Well we might as well go train. We can't really do anything till the lions are fixed so yeah.."

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After a while, Lance had to leave to bring Pidge some food and make sure she was up, leaving Keith alone in the training room. 

The room usually worked quite well to calm him down but now it was just bringing far too many memories back. Everywhere he looked, he could see his brother. The gladiator he had had a flashback with, the drones they had fought against on one of their first days, the Altean dodge ball area. The memories swirled through his head like a whirlwind, wreaking complete havoc now that there was nothing to distract him.

"-ith? Keith?", A firm hand on his shoulder grounded him as a gentle voice brought him out of his thoughts. He was suddenly aware of the warm tears streaking down his face. He brought an arm up to wipe them away and turned to his companion.

"Did- did you need something, Allura?" The Altean took a heavy breath and looked down into his eyes. 

"I- I believe I have a lot to apologize for..." Keith watched her, a strange wave patience washed over his.

"You've already apologized to me- you don't have to-"

"I believe my apology was not... fair to you. You are also not the only one I feel the need to apologize to." Keith nodded slowly, "I know now that I treated you wrongly. My justification was not a good enough reason to treat you like that. You did not deserve it and I am willing to do anything to make it right."

Keith offered her a small smile, "How about we just focus on getting Shiro back."


	23. Chapter 23

Day Two.  
That night, Lance didn't sleep again.   
He'd spent most of the day being snapped at by Pidge, making sure all the others ate and slept and keeping a close eye on Keith.  
Not just because he was his crush though, Lance was genuinely worried about him. He knew how close he and Shiro were and the lengths Keith went to last time to find him even after he'd been declared dead.

That's why it was no surprise to Lance that, by the time he'd brought half the team their breakfast, and begun trying to bring Keith his, he found out Keith had left the castle the second Red had been repaired.

He'd already been gone a good few hours. The Blue Paladin knew Keith could take care of himself normally, but for now, he was sure Keith would stay out until he found their Black Paladin, even if it put himself in danger.  
After explaining the situation to Allura, she reluctantly gave him the Red lion's current coordinates and a way to continually track him with the Blue lion.  
(A/n: Allura's not being horrible about Keith she's just not realizing how far he would go.)

As he made his way to the Blue lion's hangar, he Blue and another voice began talking to him.  
'Cub, you must find him. He is in pain.'  
'My cub needs help. Please.'  
'Yellow's cub, Paladin.'

Lance dropped the small bag of supplies he had for Keith and broke into a run towards the kitchen.

In the kitchen, he could hear sobbing and gasping from behind one of the counters.  
Hunk was scrunched into a ball, clutching his chest with tears streaming down his face.

"Hey. Hunk, buddy. It's me, Lance." He crouched down beside him, making sure to give him space so that he wasn't overwhelmed. He reached out a hand towards him and wiped away a few of his tears and clutching his shoulder.  
"Hey, it's okay. You're okay. I'm okay. We're all okay. I'm going to start counting in threes, okay? 3...6...9...12...15."  
Hunk shakily joined in around 27 and eventually evened out his breathing at 66.  
Hunk breathed in deeply then brought his chocolate brown eyes up to meet Lance's.  
"I-I'm sorry.."  
Lance's brought him into a bear hug and rubbed his back comfortingly.  
"It fine. You have nothing to be sorry about. Yellow told me what was happening."  
Hunk nodded against him.  
"I need to go get Keith, I can get Coran or Pidge to come stay with you if you want. I really wish I could stay though."  
Hunk released him and sighed.  
"I'll be alright... I might go check on Pidge though." Hunk stood up shakily and brushed himself off, "Have fun with Keith."  
He winked, knowingly and left for the Green hanger.

Lance made a mental note to tell Coran about Hunk's anxiety and found the bag he'd left before.

Red was a lot faster than Blue so Lance had to rely on Keith being extra thorough in his search.

After about 5 hours of flying, Lance was thoroughly bored when the Red lion popped up on his screen. Blue had the best long range sensors so Red was still a bit further ahead but it reignited his drive as he burst forward to meet his friend.

After a minute or so, he hailed the Red lion, who answered pretty quickly.  
Keith looked up, looking slightly surprised.  
"What? Expecting someone else,  
mullet?" Lance said in a bored tone while Keith scowled.  
"What do you want, Lance?"  
Lance pouted for a second, was it really so surprising that he'd come after him.  
"Do you know how long you've been out?"  
Keith quirked up an eyebrow in annoyance, "I've been a bit busy to keep track of the time."  
"Huh. Well, you've been out for coming up in ten hours now. Come on. We're going home."  
Keith looked offended. "Excuse me. Since when did you think you could order me around?! In case you've forgotten, Shiro is still missing and we need to find him. We can't do that cooped out at the castle."

Lance was starting to get genuinely annoyed, just cause Keith was cute and Lance had a pretty big crush on him didn't mean he could just act like this.  
"Keith. We are already missing one lion. With both of us out that's three. What do you thinks going to happen if the Galra attack while we're gone?! I didn't just spend the last 5 hours trying to find you just to fly back without you! So come on! We're going back!"

Keith seemed to be taken aback by his outburst and quietly followed along.

After another 5 hours of flying, they'd finally made it back to the castle. Without a word to any of the others, he traipsed away to his room and flopped down on his own bed after quickly doing his skincare routine and slept somewhat peacefully for a few hours.


	24. Chapter 24

Day three.  
The next day, Keith had already left again by the time Lance woke up.

Deciding to look for him later, he went about his new routine, getting food for Allura and Pidge, helping Coran and Hunk wherever he can and training.

He'd reached level 26 when he decided to go get Keith. This time Allura was in a better mood and opened a wormhole for him instead.  
Keith was also more compliant in coming back. He didn't talk much but the two of them had a few small conversations as they made their way back to the castle.

When they landed, Keith left for the training room, Lance was going to join him when he felt blue calling him back.

'Cub. I think you are ready to see some more.'

Lance looked back at the hangar doors making sure they were closed before coming to stand before his lion's lowered head.

A familiar rush of adrenaline kicked in as he entered the astral plane.   
This time he wasn't alone.

Amira, the Altean from before, stood waiting for him.  
"It's nice to see you again, Lance."  
"Um do I- have we met before?"  
Amira smiled sadly.

"When a Paladin first bonds with a lion, any previous Paladins meet you briefly as well. Although I have known you longer. Perhaps you'll remember me in a different form."

Amira's white hair darkened to a soft brown while his Altean markings vanished and his ears shrunk to resemble human ears.  
A few scars littered his face and neck and he grew lightly taller.

Lance gasped in recognition.   
"Papa?"  
Amira smiled and brought him into a gentle hug.

How could you not remember what your own father looked like? What's wrong with you?

"Well you haven't seen me since you were young, about four was it?, so it makes sense that you wouldn't recognize me immediately."

"Wait did you just-"  
"Read your mind? In a way. In the astral plane, our thoughts are no longer private since you can't exactly speak here."

Lance smiled at him and then furrowed his brows.  
"But you were alive at the same time as Allura's dad. How were you on earth?"

The darkness surrounding them shifted with what Lance assumed to be Amira's thoughts.

"When Altea fell, it was my job to hide the lions and the castle. The Blue lion I hid last, on earth. In an effort to protect it, I stayed with it in a cryopod. I programmed it to let me out if anyone got too close.  
About a few deca- years before I had you, someone triggered it."

In the cave Lance and the others found the Blue lion, stood two people.   
A Galra woman and a tall dark haired man.

"I didn't talk to them but I observed them for a while and learned their intentions. They planned on protecting the Blue lion from the Galra. I trusted them with it. One of them was from the Blade of Marmora so I believed Blue would be in safe hands.

After that, I joined the Galaxy Garrison as a pilot and got sent out to Cuba where I met your mother. She'd already had a few children but together we had you, Alejandro and Marco.  
I didn't know anything that was going on with the Galra at the time but really I just wanted to forget about it and stay with you. Of course, I carried on working with the Garrison hoping to get some new information but you know how that turned out."

This time the scene change was one of Lance's memories.  
Lance and his family stood comforting each other around a new gravestone.

Amira bit his lip.

"That Galra you saw, was it the only one?"  
Something was clicking in lance's head.  
Not just the woman but the man too.   
They resembled a certain Red paladin. The man was even wearing Shiro's clothes, which he got from Keith's house.  
"Yeah. And who's that?"  
"Huh."  
Amira smirked looking at memories of Keith. Lance blushed.

"Er it's- its nothing. Um- I need to look into something. Do you know how to get out?"  
Amira looked slightly disappointed but chuckled.  
"I'm kinda dead, I can't leave. I think Blue has to let you out."  
Lance gave a breathy laugh in response and nodded.

Before he knew it, he was back in Blue's hangar, adrenaline pumping through him.

Unfortunately before he could do anything about his latest discovery, he had to meet with the others at the bridge.

Pidge and Allura hadn't had any luck tracking Shiro so far, but they had managed to locate a nearby Galra research base.  
They were planning to infiltrate the base and see what they could find out.  
They could use this as an opportunity to find out just how much damage they'd managed to do to Zarkon and his forces and, if the Galra had managed to get Shiro, to possibly find out where they were keeping him.

Throughout the meeting, Lance's focus kept wavering to his quiet friend. At any mention of his brother, his gaze would shoot up threateningly.  
If Lance's suspicions were correct, then he knew who Keith's mother was, or at least what she looked like.

His attention snapped back to the meeting when Allura called sharply to him, "Lance, are you even listening?"  
Lance quickly apologized and focused back on the plan they'd come up with, desperately trying to ignore the tired glares from Pidge and Allura.

————————————————————

Ever since Shiro disappeared, Keith had been struggling to sleep properly. The most sleep he'd gotten that whole time was the first night when Lance had comforted him and brought him to bed.

Although Keith did enjoy Lance's company and may or may not have a giant crush on said Blue Paladin, he refused to go to him for help. Out of everyone on the ship, Keith probably did trust him the most, other than Shiro of course, but he was used to handling himself by himself.

Therefore, when Keith yet again couldn't sleep that night, he opted to take Red out searching again. It would be much earlier than all the previous times and hopefully he'd be back before anyone noticed or came out after him.


	25. Chapter 25

Day four.  
Keith hadn't checked the time before he left but he knew he'd been in Red for about 10 hours now. Lance hadn't come to get him yet so he'd just keep searching until he was forced to come away.

He'd gone back to the site of the battle.   
The space was filled with rubble and debris. It was all from one of the main Galra ship that they'd fought and it's fighters. No signs of life, no sign of Shiro.

Keith sighed. The heavy sinking feeling that he'd been dragging around since the fight only grew heavier as the hopelessness of the situation set in again.   
He'd felt a similar way when he first disappeared. He shuddered, remembering the dark thoughts that swirled around his head, with no one to relieve them or distract him.

That's one thing that was better this time.   
He wasn't alone.  
Lance and Hunk always seemed to be there when he needed them. Although, they tried to seem upbeat, Keith could see the fear and, especially in Lance's case, guilt in their eyes. Keith knew it wasn't any of their faults, that didn't stop it though. He didn't blame any of the others.

He blamed himself.

When Thace hadn't reported in, Kolivan had said that they should stop but Keith just had to jump in and volunteer.

The paladin growled to himself.

What was he thinking?! Was he trying to win Allura's trust back? Was he just being reckless like Lance usually said he was?

He pulled on his dark hair as angry tears started to form in his eyes.

He'd left his helmet on the controls a while ago.

Red sent comforting and protective purrs through the cockpit but it didn't help him.

He brought his legs up onto the chair and buried his face into them, still clutching desperately and his hair in an attempt to ground himself.

"Keith." Lance's gentle voice brought Keith's tear-streaked face back to focus on the monitor.

The Blue lion had caught up to them and stopped in front of Red.

Neither of them said anything for a second. Keith was still curled up tightly on his seat and Lance was looking him over. 

"Come on." Lance smiled softly at him, "We've finished the planning, for that Galra base. We need to let you know about the last few details."

Keith nodded quietly, still not saying anything. He turned Red around back towards the wormhole Allura had already set up for them.

They landed quietly in their respective hangars. Keith took his time leaving, not really wanting to talk to anyone right now.

Outside of Red, Lance was already waiting. Keith huffed, although he was slightly relieve he just felt guilty about Lance having to look after him so much.

The Cuban looked concerned, his eyes kept sweeping over Keith's face as if he was inspecting him.

Keith faintly smiled at him in a weak effort to reassure him. Lance obviously didn't believe him but fell into step next to him.  
"When did you sleep?"  
Keith blinked at him.  
"What?"  
Lance looked up at him, concern once again evident in his face.  
"You heard me, when was the last time you slept? And don't try to lie, you didn't even try to hide the bags under your eyes."  
Keith turned his head and swallowed.  
"Um the other day. I think? I've... not been sleeping well.."  
Lance's expression softened.  
"Nightmares?"

Keith didn't say anything.

"I'll take that as a yes then."  
Keith still refused to say anything or even look at him. This was the one thing he didn't want to happen. He didn't want anyone, most of Lance, to know about this, he didn't want to waste their time trying to help him.

"Don't do that."  
"What?" This time Keith actually looked up. Lance's soft expression had turned more stern.  
"You're trying to avoid getting help from me, pitifully I might add. Your sleep's important. What if we find Shiro and you're too tired to help out enough and we lose him again?" Keith flinched, noticing this, Lance visibly softened.

He sighed softly, "Look. At least let me try to help. Give me a week. If it doesn't work you can try again on your own alright?"

Keith swallowed and nodded, "What are you gonna do?"  
lance uncrossed his arms and smiled.  
"Come find me before bed and I'll tell you then."

———————time skip————————

Lance was just getting Pidge to go to sleep while Keith waited outside Green's hangar for him. Pidge spent most of her time there now and only came out for meetings or showers.

Keith had spent the hours after the meeting, training and eventually going to the dining room. Hunk was overjoyed when he came in. Apparently only him, Coran and rarely Allura came for food now. Lance only came in briefly to get food for Pidge, him and Keith, so he usually didn't stay too long.

The bright look on Hunk's face was enough to convince Keith to maybe start coming to meals again. He'd missed being with the team as a whole group but he'd been avoiding it in his desperation to find Shiro.

Coming back to dinner reminded him of how much they'd fallen apart without him. It hurt but it seemed to help Hunk so it was worth it.

Lance had finished with Pidge and slipped out of the hangar quietly, silently greeting Keith as he did so.

Keith followed Lance to the kitchen. He gave him a questioning look which Lance returned with a raised eyebrow.

"Do you have your pills?"  
"Er- What?"  
"For lactose intolerance. Shiro told me back when I got kalternecker. I was going to make everyone milkshakes.."  
Lance rubbed the back of his neck.  
Keith smiled and nodded getting a small jar out of one of the cupboards.

"Are you making something?" Keith asked as he swallowed the pill with a small glass of water.  
Lance nodded and started heating something up, occasionally stirring something in it.

Keith watched him intently.  
Lance hummed and passed the cup to Keith. It was a deep purple but had an unmistakable scent.  
"Hot chocolate? H-how-"  
"Come on." Lance gestured for him to follow him.

They went a slower pace than usual with Keith carrying the mug.  
Instead of carrying on to Keith's door, they stopped at Lance's.

Keith looked up in surprise and then shot another questioning look to the Cuban.

Lance shrugged, opening the door and nodding Keith inside.

"I.. always sleep better with someone else so.. I thought maybe..."

Lance turned away a light blush on his cheeks. Keith smiled and sat on the bed sipping his drink and taking off his boots.

Lance smiled and grabbed some clothes from the side. Passing some of them to Keith. Keith rose an eyebrow.  
"You can't sleep in those. I'll change in the bathroom. Tell me when you're done."

About half an hour later, the two of them where laid somewhat awkwardly on Lance's bed. Keith was against the wall, facing away from Lance while the Cuban lay on his back.

"Your rooms pretty plain."  
Lance glanced back to Keith, who had rolled over to face him.  
"Well, we haven't had much to fill them with yet. Yours is empty too."

Keith nodded.  
Lance looked back at him. He seemed nervous.  
"You don't want to sleep?"  
Keith's eyes flashed back up to him and yawned.  
"I'm tired but I don't.. Yeah..."

Lance thought for a second then shifted so he sat up a little over Keith.  
He gently pulled Keith closer and started to stroke and play with his hair.

He stiffened for a second and relaxed, leaning into Lance's touches.

Lance smiled and sighed when Keith's breathing deepened and he snuggled slightly closer.  
He fought the urge to giggle as he slid back down and Keith made grabby motions to him.

Relaxing into his side, Lance fell asleep, absentmindedly thinking about how nice it was holding the smaller paladin, how warm he was and how soft his hair was when it rested beneath his chin.


	26. Chapter 26

Day Five.  
Lance's breathing was shallow and delayed, wincing every time he breathed and whimpering whenever Keith turned a corner.

Coming to a stop in the med bay, Keith slowed, panting for breath.  
He set Lance down on a fold-able bed left at the side of the room.  
Lance shuddered and whimpered softly, screwing his eyes closed.

Keith turned to grab the suit Coran had told him to put on Lance when a shaky hand pulled him back.

Keith stumbled, caught off guard by the strength of the injured paladin.  
"K-Keith...? Stay..."  
Lance's ocean blue eyes peered pleadingly at Keith. Keith sighed and sat next to him on the bed.  
"I need to get you in a suit, Lance. You need to heal. I promise you'll be okay."  
Lance's head plopped onto Keith's shoulder, eyes falling shut.   
"Your.. warm.."  
Keith fumbled for words, eventually opting to hesitantly wrap his arms around him.  
Lance snuggled closer so Keith was cradling him.  
"M.. sorry.. lo siento..."  
Keith carded his hand through his Lance's matted and dusty hair.  
Keith hummed softly, not wanting to interrupt.  
"...you're... bueno... no mal.... lo siento."

Keith was encased in warmth, the start of the dream already slipping away but the slight memory of their bonding moment remained, leaving a content smile on his face.

Stretching his legs out slightly, he noticed a dip in the bed next to him. Normally Keith would have sprung out of bed pulling a knife out at whoever it was, but right now he was filled with the sense of calm. The faint scent of the ocean and peppermint imprinted in the sheets already lulling him back to sleep.

The warmth surrounding him shifted a little causing Keith to whine slightly.  
A soft chuckle reached his ears.  
"You awake, Keith?"

Keith's eyes pried themselves open to see Lance stretched out watching him intently.

His ruffled, chocolate brown hair flowing around in curls around his face.  
His face was littered with faint freckles dusting his cheeks and nose, the Korean was glad to see more of them. He was wearing a loose white t- shirt and blue shorts that had ridden up his thighs, exposing a long stripe of caramel skin.

Lance was a lot more awake than Keith, having woken up a few hours earlier but had wanted to stay with him just in case his nightmares made an appearance. Of course he also wanted to see Keith in all his bed headed glory again since he hadn't had the time to properly appreciate it before.

They were shaken from their peaceful quiet by the blaring of the alarms.

"Paladins get to your lions! The Galra are attacking!"

Keith groaned but jumped out of the bed briskly while Lance grumbled a string of curses.

In record time, they were out and taking down ships left and right.  
The Galra attacking them seemed less organized than usual, definitely less prepared. There was only one cruiser this time, with its fighters attacking like wasps.  
They'd probably only come across the castle by chance and decided to take a crack at it.

They managed to beat them pretty easily, even without Shiro and only four lions. No one was hurt and they met up in the main hangar, Allura and Coran were already waiting for them.

Lance hung back slightly. Smiling at the others and congratulating them. Praise was passed around, Keith staying relatively quiet, occasionally nodding to the others and giving slight smiles.

They filed out to their own destinations. Lance was going to hang back and clean blue when Keith grabbed his arm.  
"You did great today Lance. And thanks.. for last night... can I...?"

Lance beamed at the compliment already making plans with him to meet up in his room again.   
They then left for the lounge asking to borrow Pidge's spare USB with all her movies and Tv shows on.  
Pidge had relocated to the lounge after Green kicked her out, saying she needed more rest.

They spent a good part of the day watching Pidge's worryingly gory horror films and flicking through the nature documentaries having petty competitions on who'd win. Lance's thoughts and Keith's worries pushed off his shoulders while he and Lance distracted each other.

They had just finished watching A Quiet Place, when they were interrupted by a nervous knock on the door. Coran skipped into the room, taking a seat beside a now sleeping Pidge, as the two paladins turned their attention to an anxious Allura. Lance forced a smile onto his face while Allura stood straighter, watching him as she seemed to be deciding on what to say in her head. Keith watched the silent exchange curiously, about to say something when Coran dragged him into a bubbly, one-sided discussion.

Allura's eyes drifted over the Blue Paladins face nervously. Lance got the message and stood up, crossing the distance between them and leading them out into the corridor.

Allura fidgeted with her hands for a second or so before closing her eyes briefly and taking a breath. 

"Lance. I am truly sorry for what I said and did to you a few quintants ago and everything I have done before that. I am unfortunately now only just beginning to realize how wrong I have been and I hope you can forgive me and perhaps learn to build our own friendship in the future. Everything I said was wrong. You are just as valuable to this team as everyone else, including Shiro, and I don't know how we would be able to cope without you. The Blue lion never makes a mistake and I refuse to believe she could have done that with you and I hope you realize that."

The Princess ended her speech with her hands folded on top of each other in what Lance was beginning to think might be her own version of a mask. He realized he must have been silent too long when Allura gulped and began hesitantly searching his face for a response.

Lance cleared his throat, bringing Allura startling quickly back to attention, and smiled softly at her, a faint glimmer of happiness reflecting in his eyes. "Thank you, Allura. I.. really appreciate it. It would be great to be friends and you really don't have to worry, it's fine." Lance's beaming face must have convinced her as she shed her tense posture and relaxed into a smile.


	27. Chapter 27

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Altean Lance and more of the Gorgeous man.

Day Six.

Allura insisted on a final meeting finalizing the plans for their upcoming raid. Lance noted that she seemed to be taking extra precautions even if it was supposed to a simple mission. She just didn't want to risk loosing anyone else.

She seemed to be slightly more cautious about what she said around Keith now but otherwise was acting her usual self.

The meeting was quick, but Lance wasn't paying much attention to it. He already did most of the planning so he didn't have to worry about missing anything. Instead he focused on calming himself down enough to show Keith what he'd found. 

That would make him happy right?

That's all you're really good for. Making other people feel better. I mean what else can you do. Most of the time you even manage to mess that up.

A tap on his shoulder brought him out of his thoughts.  
Keith stood behind him, peering curiously at him, his hand lingering on Lance's shoulder.

The others had already left while the Red Paladin had stayed behind as Lance had asked him to before.

Lance drew in a deep breath, smiled and began leading Keith to Blue's hangar, making small talk and light friendly banter all the way. 

That morning as they had been getting up and ready for the meeting, the Blue Paladin had decided to show his friend his.. discovery? He hadn't told him anything about it yet other than that they needed to go to Blue after the meeting.

Keith looked at Lance questioningly when they came to a stop outside Blue.

Lance was breathing deeply and slowly, mentally preparing himself for whatever was going to happen.  
He turned back to face Keith, pulling him ever so slightly towards Blue's already lowered head.

"So... Blue has been... showing me some things and..." Keith breath hitched, hopeful that it could be something about Shiro but slightly unnerved at how hesitant the usually energetic Paladin was being.

"I think there's something you need to see. I- I'll explain more in a minute."

Lance linked hands with Keith, unaware of how his face heated up, while he reached his other hand to his lion.

In an instant they were submerged in darkness again. Keith looked around, panicking slightly at the new found darkness, until his eyes settled on Lance calmly standing next to him. They were both emitting their colours. Keith watched as they bled into the emptiness.

"Where are we?" Lance giggled while Keith looked shocked as his thoughts rumbled around them as if they were on speakers.  
"This is the astral plain, more specially, Blue's private astral plain. Usually only Blue Paladins can come here, you're an exception though."

Lance blushed noticing that their hands were still entwined but made no move to correct them.

"Is.. this what you wanted to show me then?"

Lance shook his head, "Not quite. Blue?"

The darkness shifted to the cave they found Blue in.  
A pair came in, as Keith gasped.  
"Dad!"  
He ran to hug him but only fell through, Lance watched sadly. That's when Keith looked up to see the other person.  
A tall Galran women.

"Is that...?"  
Lance nodded, "I... think so."  
Keith watched the woman intently, expression shifting from shock and happiness to anger and suspicion. He studied the knife in her hand as the two of them inspected and discussed the lion.  
"Eh... Keith...? I-I think..."  
Keith's head snapped back to lance as the latter's voice grew weaker and he clutched his head.

A deep protective purring echoed around them and Keith opened his eyes to find them back in the hangar.  
He sighed in relief, about to thank Lance when the Cuban groaned a fell into his side.

Keith caught him and lowered him to the ground, panicking as Lance whimpered and groaned.  
"L- Lance! What happened? Does thi-"  
A purr sounded behind him,  
"My cub used too much quintessence bringing you there, I had to lend him some of mine. It may trigger some of his buried and repressed genes to surface."  
"What- what genes? Is he going to be okay? Sh-"  
Keith's quickly growing anger quickly switched back to concern as Lance gasped against him, clawing at his shirt.  
"Co- Coran. Get... Coran." He managed to croak out, the shakiness of his voice only worrying Keith more.  
Lance was panting but Keith was beginning to panic for a different reason. His hair was steadily turning white and his ears grew slightly longer and pointed.

Lance's grip on his shirt tightened, pulling Keith out of his head enough to scoop him up bridal style and carry him to the med bay.

Coran chirped a greeting to them from the other side of the room as they entered, quickly snapping to attention upon hearing the pair's panting coupled with Lance's groaning.

He ran towards them with surprising speed and brought Lance over to an examination table.  
By now his hair was completely white, his ears elf-like and he bore an Altean marking on each cheek.  
Coran quickly removed Lance's jacket and checked his arms and shoulders, revealing more markings on his biceps.

Coran drew a sharp intake of breath while Keith quickly told him what Blue had told him, looking over Lance in wonder.

"I believe that means Lance is at least part Altean. How? I don't know but he is."

Keith was quiet as the news set in. Lance had passed out on the way there and now showed no signs of pain or discomfort.  
"I don't think the effects will be permanent. We should move him to his room, just in case he doesn't want anyone else to be aware of this yet."  
Keith nodded silently while Coran scooped Lance up, handing Keith his jacket.

Lance felt achy all over. He didn't remember training particularly hard recently, his late night/ early morning training schedule had been put aside to help Keith. They also hadn't done any team training activities since Shiro had disappeared.

He squirmed and stretched a little, trying to get more comfortable, faintly being aware of the hushed discussion next to his bed.

Lance's eyes snapped open as he shot up in bed.  
The conversation ceased as Coran and Keith looked him over worriedly.  
"Are you feeling alright, my boy?"  
"Did you tell anyone?"  
Lance had guessed Keith might figure out his true heritage when he took him to the astral plain, he'd been right guessing by the looks they gave him.

Coran shook his head.  
"We didn't want to tell anyone unless you wanted us to."  
"How long have you known?"  
Lance flinched a little at Keith's question but swallowed and decided they deserved at least a few answers.

"I started looking into it a little after we rescued Allura."  
Lance avoided Keith's eyes.  
"Was that- was that why you were acting weird? Back when we got back?"  
"...Yeah. I'm... sorry I didn't tell you."

Keith nodded to him while Coran studied their exchange.  
"May I ask how this is possible? And perhaps... why you didn't tell anyone?"

Lance nodded, leaning against the headboard unable to refuse the hopeful gleam in the gingers eyes.

"Basically the second Blue Paladin hid Blue on Earth and hid in a cryopod nearby. Keith's parents triggered his pod opening. He deemed them safe for Blue and joined the Garrison, eventually getting stationed in Cuba where he met my mama."

Coran nodded along happily while Keith processed what was being said.  
"The second Blue Paladin was Prince Amira I believe. Oh Quiznack. I believe that means you are Allura's cousin, correct. Oh I see the resemblance. Amira was a lovely soul. It warms my heart to know he's still alive."

Lance winced, Keith picked up on it immediately as the realization sank in.  
"I-I'm sorry Coran. My papa's been dead for a while now."

Lance chewed his lip awkwardly while Coran collected himself.  
He smiled and placed and hand on Lance's, "That's alright my boy, no need to apologize. After all he left us you, didn't he?"

Lance looked up at Coran sadly while Keith hesitantly brought him into a soft hug.

Keith hesitated before asking, still lingering in the hug, "Why- why didn't you tell us? I mean it's definitely better than being part Gal-" Lance cut him off by pulling him out of the hug to look at him fiercely. 

"No! Don't start that again! You are literally the definition of perfect! Being part Galra won't ever change that!" Lance closed his eyes and drew in a shaky breath in an effort to calm himself down. Keith watched him, startled by his outburst but quickly noticing the warmth spreading through his chest.

Coran cleared his throat and Lance continued his answer, "When I first found out I decided to look into it more to help myself accept it." Keith nodded slowly to show he was following, "Remember when me, you and Hunk all went to that planet with the market?" They both hummed, "Well when we got separated, I found a records place. I looked into Altean hybrids and... they weren't exactly treated nicely..." Coran twirled his mustache solemnly, looking at the floor to avoid Keith's already angry gaze.

"Altean hybrids would usually have either very little quintessence and struggle to survive to their teen years or would have an incredibly large amount that would cause them to be used by others as slaves or, in some cases, batteries. It was not something I agreed with. Alfor believed we should be more 'careful' with them because they could prove to be a danger to others. Amira disagreed. He thought we should give them training to help control their abilities but otherwise allow them to live a normal life. They fought over it so much, Amira took to roaming the universe, eventually coming back permanently to help Alfor build the lions."

Coran sighed, reminiscing about the old times with the original Paladins. He stood up and patted Lance lightly on the head, "You should be back to normal by tomorrow, my boy. Number four should stay with you for now. In the meantime, I'm going to see if I can find anything about your father. See you later... antigator?" 

Lance chuckled while Keith smiled softly, "Close enough." 

As the door swished shut behind Coran, Keith and Lance looked at each other awkwardly for a second before Keith decided to talk, "So... should I start calling you your majesty?" Lance rolled his eyes and laughed. 

"I would like that, but I can think of some other things you could call me as well." Lance winked and Keith blushed rolling his eyes but chuckling slightly.

Lance yawned and slid back under his covers, "I'm wiped... Night Cowboy.."

Keith just groaned back to him, "Cowboy?"


	28. Chapter 28

Day Seven.  
Lance and Pidge sneaked into the base on Green while Keith and Hunk distracted the bases defenses from outside in their respective lions.

They'd planned to be radio silent as soon they landed at the base so the Comms only carried the occasional chatter from the Yellow and Red Paladins which seemed to eased Coran and the Princess' tension.

Pidge had managed to hack the base in record time. Lance guessed that all the time in Green had probably teaching her a lot more than she would have learnt if they'd still been at the Garrison.

They hadn't come across any live crew members, just a few drones and sentries which Lance had shot done before they could raise the alarm.Despite the lack of problems, neither of them had broken the agreed radio silence. Making their way back through the base was unsettlingly easy up until Pidge turned their Comms back on to let the others know how it was going. 

Distracted by her helmet, she didn't notice a loose vent sticking out of the wall. She tripped, crashed into a wall and cried out. Lance jumped and turned back to check if she was okay and didn't notice the sentries turning the corner.

He had only just spotted them when they opened fire and activated the alarm. He dodged their first few shots and grabbed Pidge, dragging them out of the way as shots rained down around them.

They backed into the nearest corridor, Lance shooting as many sentries as he could while Pidge lead them on an alternate route. 

When they reached the hangars, they dashed to the Green lion with Lance still covering Pidge. Green's particle barrier dropped as Green lowered and began to open her head. While Pidge was focused on Green and reassuring the others, a sentry redirected their aim from Lance to her. 

The Blue Paladin automatically jumped to block it with his body, letting out a pained grunt at the impact but the adrenaline stopped him from feeling much pain. He quickly took out the hangar's doors that lead into the base and the rest of the sentries while climbing up Green's ramp.

Pidge flew them out to the others, not even bothering to cloak them. Keith was all over the place taking out fighters left, right and center, letting out a lot of poorly concealed anger. Hunk was attacking the base with a ferocity that made Lance glad he wasn't on the receiving end, the ion canons hadn't been operational since the start. Once they spotted Green, they pulled back, with a bit of hesitancy on Keith's end.

They got away with ease, Pidge had sent Allura the info on their way. Coran was going through it on the bridge while Hunk and Keith headed straight to the showers. That left only Allura to meet the space siblings.

Their giddy happiness quickly faded into a feeling of dread as they felt Allura's glare melting holes in them.

Pidge gulped and shuddered, she particularly didn't like being on the receiving end of lectures.

"Princess-" Lance started,  
"What were you thinking."  
It wasn't spoken like a question but the phrasing threw him off. He hated how Allura and Coran always spoke English so effortlessly despite them literally learning it in a few seconds.   
You're part Altean, you should be able to understand it like them.   
You can't even do that right. What's wrong with you?!

While Lance mentally berated himself Allura finished her lecture. She seemed more worried than angry.

She took a strong, calming breath and carried on talking to them, "I.. don't know what you did but please be more careful next time. We decided on radio silence for a reason," She glared at Pidge pointedly, who shuffled under her gaze, "Pidge, please go to Coran for a check up. We heard you get hurt over the Comms."

Pidge was about to say something in retalliation but decided against it when met with Allura's stern look. She shuffled out off the room with a quick look back to Lance, who still stood leant against Green's lowered mouth. The adrenaline was wearing off and the pain in his lower back was becoming more and more prominent. He held down the painful shudders his body kept trying to form in response to whatever Allura was now staying.

"-know it wasn't your fault but next time you need to pay closer attention to your teammates or-" Allura cut herself off with a sad look and muttered a quick farewell before leaving the room.

Lance took some more shaky breaths as he waited for her to get a bit further away before heading to his own room.

It was a couple floors up so it took him a while with his injury but he didn't meet anyone on the way there.

Once in his room, he immediately went into his bathroom and peeled off his armor. The outer armor was burnt around the wound and had numerous scratches all over due to him not having got around to cleaning and repairing his armor since they'd first gone to meet with the Blades.  
After that they'd just been too preoccupied.

The under armor had taken quite a bit of damage from the shot leaving a singed hole, it would definitely need replacing.  
The wound itself hadn't been very deep and had been mostly cauterized from the start. All the twisting he'd done when re-adjusting his angle for shots had probably reopened the wound. It would probably leave a scar but that wasn't something he minded anymore. The majority of his back was decorated with a lighter explosion of skin from the time he went into a mini coma.   
Luckily he wasn't bleeding any more and hadn't seriously damaged anything.

Lance sighed in relief and stepped into the shower. He washed off the grime and blood and laid his head against the tiles letting the water spill over his body and drown out the tears.  
So useless. If you'd done a better job taking out the sentries you wouldn't have gotten shot to begin with.   
It's your fault.  
You don't deserve to be a Paladin.   
You've nearly killed everyone here at some point.  
Hunk nearly died the first day cause you couldn't cover him well enough.  
Coran nearly died in that exploded.  
Your slip up with slav could've killed shiro, pidge and slav along with losing you the fight against the Galra.  
You couldn't get Keith or Allura to listen that time at the universal hub and Allura got captured because of it.  
And for all you know, Shiro's already dead. You didn't even realize something was wrong. Keith did, obviously, because Keith is better in every way. How you'd ever think he could even want to be your friend is beyond me.

Lance didn't bother with his skin routine again, he just updated the journal he'd been keeping for Shiro to read if he got back, changed into a loose hoodie and shorts and slumped into bed, tears still fresh on his face.

That's how Keith found him that night when he came by since he couldn't sleep. Curled up in a blanket cocoon, sniffling lightly in his sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm in a really good mood now cause my English teacher gave me my practice paper back and I got a Grade 8- I-


	29. Chapter 29

Day Eight.  
Lance woke up to quiet whimpering and shaking beside him.   
He shook himself to alertness, shooting up to see Keith curled up beside him in his usual place, desperately clawing at his blankets.   
His skin was covered in large purple patches and on his head two large fluffy ears were twitching.

Lance pulled the Korean towards him and started petting his ears and hair. 'Do nightmares cause him to go Galra? But then surely he would have known sooner. Is this just a really bad nightmare? Maybe that's why he was reluctant to ask for help.'

A light rumbling noise started coming from Keith, his twitching had calmed down and he wasn't whimpering anymore. 'This is adorable. Is he purring? Dios mío, I love this boy.'  
"Hey buddy," Lance whispered soothingly into Keith's messy hair, "It was just nightmare. You're awake. You're safe."  
Keith relaxed a bit more into his hold, resting his head on his chest still purring slightly. Lance decided not to mention it for fear he'd find some way to stop.  
"Do you want to tell me what it was about?"  
Keith hesitated before speaking, softly returning Lance's embrace.  
"It.. was about Shiro. Lance, what if the Galra have him? What if we never get him back? What if they- they kill him or torture him or-" At this point Keith was close to hyperventilating.

"Whoa- shh Keith. We're going to find him. Okay? You found him last time on your own in shack in the middle of the desert. Now you have Pidge and Hunk, who are both complete geniuses and the Alteans know more than any of us about the Galra and space. Plus, there's the Blades and Slav and all the other planets in the coalition. We'll find him. And when we do, sure, he might be a bit messed up but we have a whole universe of people and planets that could help us help him. It's all going to turn out alright, I promise."  
Lance stopped stroking Keith's ears to bring his hand down for a pinky promise and held it out for Keith. Keith still looked a worried but a hopeful spark had returned to his now purple and yellow eyes. He nodded and shook his pinky with Lance's.

Neither of them made any move to leave the hug or free their hands and just lay there encased in warmth, snuggled up to each other, slowly drifting off to sleep.

13th October

It officially been over a week since Shiro disappeared.  
Allura is getting irritated with everyone much more quickly than usual. Her and Pidge still won't come to meals. Coran had to be bring her her food today since she's avoiding everyone else. 

Pidge has been going over the data we got.  
Apparently she isn't finding that much.  
Nothing about prisoners, no plans either.  
There was some messages some of the guards had been sending each other during their shifts (me and Pidge ship a few of them, especially guards 173 and 655- such adorable names).  
They talked a bit about betting on gladiator pits, we think it would be a good idea to check there. Even if shiro isn't there we could get some good allies.  
There doesn't seem to be anyone actually leading them at the moment, we need to get in touch with the Blades to confirm that though.

Hunk and Coran are doing great like usual and Keith's finally started coming to meals again.  
He's been doing better sleep wise so soon I going to start letting him search in Red again.

The base we raided didn't have any living soldiers that we came across and I checked the footage from Red and Yellow earlier and most of their attacks seemed more... automatic? It was easy to predict and they didn't seem to be learning from attacks.  
I'm guessing most of the bases crew probably left the base only guarded by bots. Maybe they've been withdrawn by higher ups or they've been drawn in by the power vacuole. Maybe they ran away. I don't know.

We're hopefully going to do another raid on another base soon. We should probably switch up which lions do what though otherwise we could get too predictable.

Anyway that's all I've got for today's update.  
Night, Shiro.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last time I said that lance probably wrote some sort of Jornal to help shiro get up to date (I got the idea from a post I saw about how lance probably took the pictures from the mission with the blade (s03 e01) for shiro)  
> Anyway the nightmare thing was pretty much all I had for this chapter so I decided to add this too to make it a bit longer.  
> I might add them again every so often if there are things I don't really feel like writing. This is the last one I have to rewrite so after this updates might be less frequent.


	30. Chapter 30

Day Nine.

Their day had been pretty 'normal', honestly. Keith and Lance helped Hunk with some repairs and then trained a bit only for Lance to be ushered away by Coran to help with cleaning and to talk more about his new found heritage. Leaving Keith to pour over the pictures he'd managed to get out of Blue of his parents.  
He made a mental note to ask Kolivan about the Blade member the next time they saw him.

At dinner, they had a strange assortment of alien dishes spread over the table- Hunk and Coran had been having a competition over who could make the best improvised meals. No one was complaining, the food was still great.

Keith had trailed in quietly with a mild headache from staring at a screen for so long and took his usual seat, surprised to find that Lance's was empty.

Almost as if he'd been summoned, the Blue Paladin bounded happily through the door followed by a slightly reluctant Pidge.  
Keith smiled softly as Pidge grumpily plopped down in her usual seat and carried on with whatever she was doing on her laptop.

Hunk and Coran carried on their animated conversation with Keith chipping in every so often.  
Lance stayed quiet beside him, much to Keith's disappointment but he tried to brush it off.

Silence just wasn't something he wanted right now.

Pidge returned to her room for the first time in almost 2 weeks as Hunk happily cleaned the dining room and Coran chirped to him about some sort of Altean animal they used to keep at the Castle.

Keith made his way to the Lance's room, where he hoped to find the brunette.  
The door opened automatically for him. Keith stepped inside, about to greet his friend when he heard sniffling.  
His attention was drawn to one of the corners of the room.

The room was so dark he probably wouldn't have been able to see at all if it wasn't for his Galra DNA.

Lance was curled into a corner with his head pressed into his arms which were folded over his legs.

Keith tried to make as little sound as possible as he crept over to sit next to him.  
"Lance..?"  
Lance yelped and flinched away from him slightly. Keith buried the splash of hurt he felt when he did and tried his best to be reassuring.  
"Are you okay?"  
Lance's startled expression quickly changed to a calm reassuring one.  
"Yep I'm fine. Why d-o you ask..."

Keith winced at the crack in his voice halfway through and tried to wash away the concern for how easily Lance could control his facial expressions. His expression hardened to a more stern one as he bit the inside of his cheek and reposition himself next to the brunette.

"Lance. I'm asking you because I care. Now tell me what's wrong." The boy's face melted to one of worry and fear, making Keith's heart clench at how hopeless he looked. 

"I- I'm sorry... I shouldn't..." 

Keith raised an eyebrow and tilted to watch Lance's expression.

"You.. shouldn't tell me? Why..?"

Lance traced the seams on his jeans, avoiding Keith's searching gaze.

"...I- I haven't... done anything. Sh-Shiro's out there and I-... I hate this! I'm just so-" His breath hitched a few stray tears leaked down his flushed cheeks. Keith hesitantly put his arm out in what he hoped was a comforting gesture. He smiled in relief when Lance leant into it but frowned again when he noticed how much Lance was shaking. He wasn't just shaking, he was sobbing, stuffing his hands over his mouth to muffle the sounds. The Korean knitted his eyebrows, pulling Lance's hand off his mouth and pulling his against his in a tight but gentle hug.

A surprised squeak came from the tanned one before he relaxed and nuzzled into Keith's chest, taking in the scent of vanilla and ground coffee. Keith kept a strong hold on him as he bit his lip, deliberating on what to say next.

"Is this why you were so quiet at dinner?"

Lance shook his head against him, "I- Pidge needed to concentrate.. I didn't want to... interrupt."

Keith's frown deepened above him. The ravenette started rubbing circles into his hair, trying to replicate how Lance did them. He began speaking again, this time softer and gentler.

"Lance, listen to me. You're not useless. You've done- Always do- so much for us. More than I do-" Lance lifted his head at the waver in his voice, ocean eyes finally meeting violet. He was about to say some in dispute when Keith cut him off, "All I've done is mope around or endanger the team. I would probably still be out there, starving, if you hadn't forced me back. Lance...I.."

Need you. Love you?

He trailed off, leaving his words unfinished and his heart aching.


	31. Chapter 31

Day 14.  
After their last mission, the team had been disheartened to say the least. They hadn't managed to get any information on Shiro or any of Pidge's family at all. They hadn't even found out anything about the current state of the empire. Granted they hadn't run into any since the first one back at the start but none of them had been able to find much solace in it. Instead deciding to spend their time training, planning and searching.

At the start of their second week without their Black Paladin, they had all dragged themselves to the bridge in varying states of disarray. Their next mission was going to be focused on a satallite base orbiting an ice giant. Knowing they needed to switch up their roles to stop themselves from becoming to predictable, Blue, Green and Yellow would be the ones attacking the base and defending the castle if it got too close, while Keith would both be going in to get the info using Pidge's guidance.

Lance wasn't sure when exactly everything went wrong he just remembered they did. 

Keith had gotten the information just fine, only running into a few actual guards- none of which lived long enough to sound any alarms. It must have been when he and Red joined the fight that everything went to shit. 

Lance had been handling his own area easily- his own shooting abilities translated well into his lion- and had only had the help the others a couple of times. They mustn't have heard Allura calling them back or maybe she never did. Maybe she was just as caught up in the moment to think about leaving just yet. Keith fought ferociously, not giving a second to care for the people that took his brother away. Hunk and Pidge were weaving in and out of eachother, being the only ones beside Coran to urge the others to retreat.

They didn't listen. Or atleast Keith didn't and Lance wasn't enough to persuade him this time.

Red got hit. Keith's screams rang out on the comms as he crashed into Blue, dragging them both down to the planet's surface. Lance was tossed about his cockpit, luckily managing to grab onto the back of his chair before his back injury could be damaged anymore. 

As the turbulence ceased, the Blue Paladin felt his lion give a tired purr as she shut off leaving Lance laying on the floor clutching onto the back of his seat. He released his hold and eased himself onto his elbows, twisting his back and stretching out his muscles. Flying a gaint robot lion might be tiring but it didn't change the fact that he was still essentially sat down for what he guessed to be around an hour.

Keith had gone unnervingly silent now. It took Lance a moment to realise it wasn't just Keith that had gone quiet. The Comms must've been down. He cursed under his breath and pulled himself up.

Getting to Keith would be impossible if he couldn't get either Blue or the comms to work again. He quietly thanked whatever being that decided to make the lions be able to withstand this much pressure. 

"Probably Alteans." Lance nodded to himself, "Alteans sound good." He tapped his helmet, fiddling with the Comms buttons on it, eventually hearing an approving beep. He smiled and tried to force some positive thoughts into his head, "Hey, Keith? Buddy, you there? Keith?" His smile faded into a look of concern as the silence dragged on, "Kei-" he was cut off by a brief grunt and a groan.

"Lance..?" 

"Oh Jesus Christ, Keith. Don't scare me like that." He made an exaggerated sigh of relief and smiled at the breathy chuckle it drew from his friend.

Lance dropped into his pilot chair and put his helmet on speaker beside his on the controls.

"Okay is Red online?"

Keith sighed, "No.."

The Cuban clicked his tongue and started fiddling with the controls, "Great. Neither's Blue. Um are you hurt at all? You got hit right?"

Keith hummed back, "'m fine. Just banged up my ankle.. You?"

Lance paused to replay his words in his head. He seemed honest enough, "I'm good too. Can you give me your co-ordinates, I need to figure out how far away you are."

Silence enseued, "Keith..?"

"What- Oh sorry I forgot you can't see me." Lance chuckled and shook his head when Keith co-ordinates popped up in his gauntlet. 

Luckily, he seemed to be quite close but that didn't change the pressure or temperature problem. Lance sucked in a sharp breath, "Lance? You okay?"

"Um yeah, Keith what's the lowest Red can handle?"

"What? Is this some sort of competition?"

"Keith, just answer."

"Er minus two hundred?"

"Fuck..."

"What! Lance, answer! Now!"

"Sorry.. The planet's temperature is around -220. Blue's made for colder climates. We need to get you here."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I felt like mixing it up a bit and skipping a few days- to be honest there wasn't really much planned for them anyway that I couldn't just add to other chapters.


	32. Chapter 32

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for taking so long between updates. I've been busy with exams but they should be over within a week or two and then updates will hopefully get more frequent.

Day 14 Part 2  
"Okay. I think I've figured it out." Keith nodded from his end of the comms. "If me and Blue carry Red to this cave then we can activate our particle barriers to protect us from the pressure outside our lions." Keith smiled faintly. Lance's voice was always calming to him.

They still had a problem though.

"How will we be able to get to each other though? Our particle barriers only cover our own lions."

The pause stretched on for almost a minute, in which Keith could practically hear the gears turning in his friend's head.

"...Blue says we can use our voltron bond to... join our particle barriers? I don't know why that's the part of this I'm questioning." The Red Paladin chuckled breathily, "I honestly wouldn't be surprised if we could like.. shoot rainbows from our hands or something."

Keith leant his head back on his chair. His leg was definatly hurting now. Lance was going to kill him when he finds out he lied about his condition (and then promptly dote over him until and after he was better). His grip on the injury was only making it hurt more but atleast there was less blood this way. Hopefully he wouldn't need to take any medicine or something and the healing pods were still operational. As much as he trusted Coran, he didn't think he would be able to take an injection or if any medicine they had would even work on him given that he was part Galra.

He could barely focus on trying to get his lion back online right now with the pain. Without anything else to think about, his thoughts were all centered around his Blue Paladin and how much he longed for him to get there quicker.

Carrying the Red Lion to the cave was much easier than Lance expected it to be. They landed carefully, making sure not to damage the already weakened lion or jostle it's quiet pilot.   
After setting down, Lance closed his eyes and focused, tapping into his bond with the Blue Lion, extending that into the voltron bond and altering their shared particle barriers.

He jumped down his ramp and running across into Red's lolling mouth, bubbling with concern. 

"Keith? KEITH! NOW IS NOT THE BEST TIME TO GO QUIET!" He padded into the cockpit. Keith was laid back, curling slightly into his seat, allowing his hair to spill over the back. He appeared to be sleeping.

"Keith..? Buddy?" Lance stepped around the chair and drifted around over his friend's face. It may have been Lance's imagination but he seemed paler than usual. "Keith..." The Red Paladin groaned a little in his sleep and shifted his leg, wincing as he did so. Lance's eyes wandered down to follow the movement.

He gasped. Keith had kept his armor on, probably to keep pressure on the wound. Despite his efforts, deep red blood had already seeped out, standing out strongly against the white of his armor. Breathing shakily, Lance drew his hand back to the pale face of his friend and started gently tapping against his cheek.

"...Keith?" He was too worried about the ravenette to bother correcting the shaky quietness of his voice or even how his accent was creeping in. "Keith? Please wake up."

The Korean twitched and flinched away from the more tanned hand. "Mm... Hey Lance."


	33. Chapter 33

Keith was murmering quietly in his sleep. Lance leant against the makeshift bed, running his hand carefully through the ravenette's messy hair in an almost trance-like state.

Keith hadn't woken up yet but Lance really couldn't bring himself to wake him up when he already doubted how much sleep he got. That left Lance to his thoughts. For once that wasn't much of a bad thing. The gentle humm of Blue's thoughts and Keith's quiet murmering against the thrashing of the wind outside created a strangely nostalgic atmosphere. It lulled him to and from the edge of sleep as he awaited a response from Pidge or the Castle, with the soft dark hair of his sleeping friend slipping through his fingers.

Keith smiled and sighed blissfully. He was still in that perfect state between sleep and wakefullness His blankets and pillows were cool to the touch and yet still encasing him in warmth. He'd missed this. He rolled and stretched, enjoying the relieving sensation of air filling his lungs. He could feel Red purring at the back of his head metaphysically surrounding him protectively with her essensce. 

He yawned again and brought a hand up to rub the sleep out of his eyes. The blankets fell off his torso and piled around him. Keith sighed. Lance must have gotten them back to the castle already without waking him up. He tried to push down the disappointment filling him when he noticed that the brunette wasn't there. Instead he focused on the wound he had on his leg. It was already gone, as he should have expected by now, and felt as good as new.

He clambered out of bed and padded down the corridor in search of his Blue Paladin. It didn't take him too long. Lance was dashing around the training room practicing with his bayard's sniper rifle form. It was enchanting. Every shot meeting it mark almost effortlessly, leaving the Bot's bodies to fall to the floor into eachothers way but not restricting Lance at all. He weaved in and out of the artificial corpses with calculated precision as if he was predicting their falls.

Keith tipped into the training rooms door, watching pridefully while the simulator ended.

"Good morning, your heighness." Keith unfurled his arms and began tapping his way over to a startled Lance. 

"Y-You're awake? Already?" Lance looked him over carefully as Keith smirked teasingly at him.

"No comment on your heighness?" 

Lance blushed lightly, struggling to come off as cocky, "Y-yeah well, it's only natural that you should respect your superiors." Keith rolled his eyes playfully.

"Come on."

Lance tilted his head in a puppy-like manner, "Where are we going?" He fell into step beside him as Keith hummed nervously.

"Well. I was thinking..." Lance eyed him curiously as he fumbled for words, his confidence quickly fading, "Well, you always... know when to.. head back. So I was wondering... would you like to.. come with me. Please." 

Lance smiled and chuckled quietly, "Course, Samari. Your lion?" Keith seemed like he was in shock and wasn't replying as readily as before but nodded quickily. Lance's smile widened as he jogged off calling back to Keith that he was going to change first.

His heart pounded in his chest as he hurridly changed into fresh clothes. He couldn't keep the smile off his face just a minute ago at the prospect of spending more time with his crush but now tears threatened to spill from his eyes as his thoughts overwhelmed him. How could he possibly have even had the briefest inclination that Keith was trying to get a confession out. How self-centered could he get. Shouldn't it be obvious by now. He would never be interested in him and even if there was the slightest chance that he was, Lance could never deserve him.

He just wasn't good enough.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I may have underestimated how long my exams would go on for (none of my teachers had any idea either) but I'm finally on my break and hopefully when I get back I'll have more time for this since my exams will mostly be over.


	34. Chapter 34

Day 17  
Blue navigated through the water of Baku with ease, setting down outside the castle. The two of them swam out of the lion to meet the Queen, who nodded to them respectfully and lead them inside.

"It is a pleasant surprise to see you again so soon, Blue Paladin." Lance smiled back and swam in pace with her while Keith lagged behind a bit, both out of caution and his lack of experience with swimming.

"It's good to see you too, your majesty, I just wish it was a happier situation. Would it be possible for you to track our missing Paladin?"

The Queen peered at him almost sympathetically before glancing back to Keith and nodding, "I can trace specific types of Quintessence but I would need an object or piece of their clothing first."

Keith didn't say anything and held out the Black Bayard and the tub of sleeping pills that Shiro had left behind. The Queen took them gently into her own hands nodded reassuringly to Keith and turned into her study, leaving Lance and Keith behind to wait for her to finish.

They had switched out their helmets for the Baku bubbles back when they first landed. Keith was starting to regret that choice. The main reason he kept his hair long was because to him it felt like a safety blanket separating him from everything else but ever since they'd started wearing helmets more often he'd started to associate that with safety instead. The lack of a helmet now made him feel uncomfortably exposed, just adding to his bundle of nerves.

He felt a light tap on the shoulder and drifted around to meet Lance's eyes. "Hey?" Keith had figured out by now that couldn't fake his emotions (at least not to Lance) but that didn't prevent the automatic wince at how shakey his voice came out.

Lance's face softened as he brought the smaller boy into a careful hug. He reached his hand through Keith's air bubble and began to play with the hair at the base of his neck. Keith fell into the embrace, laying his face on Lance's collarbone and listening to his rhythmic breathing.

"Shh.. It's going to be okay... We're going to find him. It might not be here or the next planet or base that we raid but we're going to find him, cariño. You'll get him back, I promise." Keith just hummed into his neck, thankful for the weightless feeling the water provided.

Keith shot out of his arms and whipped around upon hearing a polite coughing noise from behind them. The Queen giggled quietly at his reaction before passing him Shiro's belongings back to him. Her face returned to a grim expression which caused Keith's to fall flat. 

"Unfortunately, the samples you gave me only had faint traces of his quintessence on them. I believe it cannot be helped, it's just been too long since he interacted with them. The traces I picked up only concentrated aboard your vessel and nowhere else. I am very sorry that I couldn't do more." Lance was just as visibly glum as Keith felt but he still managed to plaster a light smile onto his face. 

"You did all you could, your majesty. We appreciate your efforts, even if we couldn't find him from this, you've still brought us closer to doing so. For that we're grateful. Thank you, ma'am." Keith muttered a brief thanks before they swam back together to the Blue lion in complete silence other than the muffled swirling of the water. 

-

-

Keith plopped down onto the bed and melted into the covers. It didn't smell as much of Lance anymore now that his own scent was mixed in. It was strange, it hadn't even been three weeks yet and he and Lance's friendship had already changed so much. Keith had never been able to get close to people this quickly before. Was he imagining it? Were they even close or was Keith just forcing himself into Lance's life? 

He curled up further into blankets but they were no longer comforting, they just intensified this sinking guilt in his chest. Reluctantly, he pulled the blankets off and swept his legs onto the floor, willing himself to leave when the door opened. Lance stepped into the room, flashing a tired smile to him before giving him a questioning look, "Keef? How are... feeling?" 

Keith bit the inside of his cheek, dumping more of his feelings onto him wasn't fair on him and was only taking advantage of him further. He really did want to talk to him, he loved talking to Lance but it felt.. wrong. 

Lance took a seat next to him and watched him carefully, "Keith, you not talking isn't going to help anything. It's obvious that there's something wrong. Is it about Shiro? Cause we can talk about him all you like. Or anything else."

Keith weighed his options in his head and gulped inaudibly. "...Okay."

"Okay?" 

"Lets talk about Shiro."

Lance nodded and smiled, pulling Keith back into the covers before getting out of them himself and picking up some tubs from his bathroom and sitting across from him under another blanket.

Keith peered at the tubs Lance had placed in between them curiously, "What are..?" Lance chuckled and scooped some of the substance onto his index finger. 

"This, my dear Keith, is the key to flawless skin- although I suppose that could also be water... Oh right talking! How did.. you and Shiro meet? Let's start there."

Lance started painting Keith's face with the cream while he waited for Keith to collect his thoughts. "Um... I guess the first time I actually met him was... when he came into my school to get people to go the garrison, I guess." 

Lance giggled quietly, "Wow, amazing English there partner."

Keith attempted to pout at him but Lance practically screeched at him to smooth his face out so he rolled his eyes instead. "After that, I stole his car and for some reason he enrolled me into the Garrison as quickly as possible." Lance choked. 

"Wait what?! Did you even take the entrance exam?" 

"Well I did the practical part and got to skip the actual exam part, so no?"

Lance looked at him incredulously, "Me and Hunk had to take three separate exams before even being allowed to apply. I-" 

Keith snorted and flicked him on the nose, "Maybe next time, just impress them with your amazing law breaking skills." Lance groaned and dropped his head onto Keith's shoulder, setting off an uncomfortably warm blush on Keith's face. 

"I'm starting to think America might be designed to benefit Americans more."


	35. Chapter 35

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This takes place during the lion swap- Keith is now the Black paladin but no one else has switched yet. I'm also going to largely redo alot of the lion swap.

Day 32  
Lance, Pidge and Hunk were all piled into the Green and Yellow lions. They hadn't made much progress with finding Shiro but they'd managed to stay on top of their voltron work. Their missions were certainly harder with the disorder that the lack of their Black Paladin brought but they'd pulled through. 

The Blade and the coalition hadn't been particularly cooperative with each other given that the Blade preferred to work alone and the coalition already had a strong distrust of all Galra. As a result, Voltron had been accompanying them on most missions to ensure that they went smoothly. That's what they were doing right then.

They were meant to meet a few Blade members and a possible new addition to the alliance but they'd run into a slight problem. The planet they were visiting, that wanted to meet with them to discuss an Alliance, was under Galran rule and protection. The Blade members coming with them had left immediately upon discovering that fact and now the three of them were deciding what to do next.

Lance could hear Hunk groaning through the comms, he couldn't see him in Green's screen but he presumed Hunk looked like he was about to throw up.

"I think we should just go back to the castle, waiting around next to a Galra infested planet is just asking to get shot out of the sky." Pidge spoke irritably, Lance stayed silent while Hunk audible gulp.

"But... Shouldn't we at least talk to them? What if they need our help?", Hunk's voice came out shakily at first but strengthened with the prospect of helping someone.

Lance nodded, "There's a reason they want to talk to us," Pidge opened her mouth to interrupt but Lance talked over her, "It could be a trap so we should talk to the others first but we can't just dismiss it."

Pidge glared at him, "I wasn't saying that we should just forget about it-"

"I know I'm agreeing with you." Lance tried to smile at her but she wouldn't look at him and redirected her focus to her controls. She had already seemed to be feeling moody today so he tried not to let in bother him too much but it didn't stop him from wanting to be anywhere other there right then.

Keith was still quieter than before but no one but Lance really seemed bothered by it, they were however bothered by his and Pidge's mood swings. Lance and Hunk tried to not take anything they said at the moment personally but Allura took them all too seriously causing a series of rows over the past few weeks. It was because of a particularly bad one between the three of them that their missions were separate today and also probably contributed to Pidge's bad mood. But now his silence matched that of everyone else's.

The Planet was supposedly under the protection of Prince Lotor. It wasn't that none of them had any ideas for how to react in this situation, they had plenty of those, the problem was that none of them could agree on what to do anymore. Pidge and Allura thought that they should liberate the Planet. Coran, Hunk and Lance wanted to get more information first before deciding what to do while Keith remained undecided. The majority were for procuring more information but that didn't make the conversation any easier.

It was amongst all the chaos that Lance had taken to zoning out of the conversation and absentmindedly watching Keith. He hadn't talked much today and Lance barely saw him as much anymore now that he'd been trying to sleep on his own again. He looked paler too and had purplish bags under his eyes that made Lance cringe internally. He looked in between Pidge and Coran's row (definitely something he never thought was possible), concluding that neither of them would notice a few missing Paladins and nudged Keith quietly, gesturing to the door.

A few minutes later, they were settled comfortably into Keith's room, a place that Lance had spent a surprisingly small amount of time. Lance leaned into Keith's side, humming softly and fiddling with the leather glove on one of his hands. 

"Keith." Purple eyes met his own almost fearfully, "Come on, talk to me. Please." Lance moved his focus to Keith's hair, threading through it and braiding smaller strands before brushing them out with his fingers. 

"I- I don't know what to say... I'm overwhelmed, I guess." Lance nodded, a lion functioned similarly to a second consciousness in their head so having one leave and immediately replaced by another would be confusing to say the least.

Keith just slumped against him, finding comfort in Lance's scent. The Blue Paladin didn't say anything, only humming and playing with his hair while watching the now Black Paladin curl in on himself in his lap.


	36. Chapter 36

After a few lengthy 'discussions', most of which Lance and Keith had managed to sneak away from, they had decided to gather more info first. Even then, there wasn't much to find about him and anything they did find was too vague or outdated to be considered insightful. However, they had come to a conclusion. They simply didn't have enough information to engage him and didn't even have all the lions in working condition so they would struggle to free an active Galran Planet. Instead they were going to carry on with normal Voltron stuff that didn't necessarily require all five lions.

It was one of these missions that Lance, Keith and Hunk had just come back from. Hunk had spent most of the mission trying to fill the quiet on the comms. Keith still seemed pretty shaken up by his new role while Lance had muted himself. Hunk had assumed that it had been an accident at first but now had the impression that Keith's loss of Red had given him the urge to reconnect, in a sense, with his own lion.

When they made it back to the castle, they didn't say much to each other, just a few nods and smiles as they separated. Lance was the last to come out. He waited for Hunk to leave before falling into pace beside behind Keith.

Keith turned, feeling a light tug on the fabric of his undersuit.  
"Lance?" Keith tried to his best to lighten his face but even he could tell it wasn't convincing. Lance sighed and smile slightly, allowing his hand to drift down Keith's arm, gripping his hand gently.  
He stepped out in front of the new Black Paladin and squeezed his hand again.   
"Keith, I need you to talk to me... about anything. I just need to talk to you."  
Keith tensed up, his eyes studied Lance's for any guidance or hints. Lance smiled back.  
"I feel like I should have come up with a topic first. I'm sorry."  
Keith shook his head, readjusting his hold on Lance's smaller hand. "No, it's alright!" He smiled in what he hoped was a reassuring manner, "Er- what about..." Keith trailed off, bringing his free hand to fiddle with his collar absentmindedly. Lance giggled, pulling Keith into the changing rooms.

Lance let go of his hand to pull off his armor leaving them both in just their under suits. They settled on the bench nearest to wall as the mood turned more serious. Lance took Keith's hand back in his own and began playing with it as he arranged his thoughts. "Keith... How are you feeling? Please, tell the truth."  
Keith's hand twitched in Lance's before he leant his head on top of his blue paladin's.   
"I-"   
"And if you're going to say 'I don't know' then... I could help you figure that out. Just please don't shut me out."  
Keith nodded against his shoulder. He didn't want to lie to him and in all honesty he didn't think he could. He only had to tell him some of it and not lose it. No tears.

He breathed out slowly and began speaking, compromising to keep his face hidden.   
"I... feel like everything's going too fast but too slow at the same time. It- It's not just that Shiro's gone again or that Red didn't want me anymore," his voice had cracked and he had started shaking, "Or that I'm Galra," Lance tightened his grip on his hand and stretched his other arm round his back, "Lance do you know how many people we've killed? I don't.. What if being Galra didn't make me a monster-"  
"It didn't"  
"What if I'm becoming a monster. I- I don't know anything about them. But they took Shiro- And did so many horrible things to him... And-and if Black picked me doesn't that she doesn't have a paladin anymore. Doesn't that mean Shiro's-" Tears were falling freely now. 

Lance adjusted his half- hug and burrowed his face into Keith's hair.

He hadn't even thought of that. Just how much more was Keith keeping bottled up? How had he let him feel so alone?

"Buddy.." Lance lifted his head to watch Keith as he fiddled with his hair and gently wiped his tears, "Hear me out. Zarkon's been alive this whole time, right? And Black still picked Shiro even though her other Paladin was still alive... So Black picking you now wouldn't mean that Shiro's gone."

"B-but."

"No. There's no buts, sure he could still be gone but the lion switch doesn't prove that-"

"But he could be dead and we never know. We could just be stuck looking for him forever but if we stop he might be alive and we just gave up on him and left him to die." Keith was refusing to meet his eyes anymore. Lance was faintly aware of his own eyes filling up with tears. He tipped Keith's chin to reveal his tear stained face, smiling wetly at him before wrapping him in a tighter hug.

"Honestly.. I don't know how to fix any of this... but I'm never going to leave you, Samurai, as long as you still want me... and it's the same with everyone else."


	37. Chapter 37

Despite Keith's previous resolve to sleep on his own from now on, after what had happened with Lance it seemed that his body automatically lead him to his Blue Paladin's room that night. The Cuban had let him in wordlessly and the two of them settled into bed as if it were the most normal thing in the world to them, which Keith happily realised it was. 

Keith had awoken enveloped in warmth. He gathered that it some point in the early morning but he could never really tell in space. Blearily, he shifted positions and rolled his face into Lance's smooth shoulder. Keith blushed as he took in the salty caramel scent. He'd noticed that his sense of smell had gotten a lot better since his Blade trial. 

Lance was burrowed into his side with his arms strewn across him. He was still deeply sleeping. Keith smiled. This was probably the most relaxed he'd seen him in a while. Despite all his jokes and humour, it was clear that the stress had been piling up on him. The Korean melted into his arms, enjoying the feeling of air filling his lungs and Lance's messy hair against his neck, relishing the quiet of his brain.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't really intend on writing this part, which is why it's so short, but I felt like they deserved some fluff.
> 
> Okay I was going to do the next chapter today but I can't find anywhere with the transcript for s03 E02 and 3 so it might take a bit longer, sorry.  
> I'm laughing through the tears rn. I can't tell if I've finally lost it or I'm just sleep deprived.


	38. Chapter 38

The alarm had only gone off for a few minutes but they were all already tense. This would be Keith's first time in combat with the Black lion- they'd be crazy if they weren't worried. Lance could hear Allura encouraging Keith over the comms while Pidge and Hunk got into their lions.

He couldn't shove down the knot of worry solidifying in his gut and heart. The others were already outside and he couldn't even get into his lion. That calming beat he'd come to associate with Blue had gone quiet. It felt muffled- like there was a barrier between the two of them. 

"Lance, where are you?" Keith definitely sounded more authoritive than usual- it didn't exactly help his bubbling nerves.

Lance almost growled his response, "My lions not responding to me." He was half glad it came out whiny, he didn't want Keith to think he was mad at him.

"Well, figure it out and catch up with us as soon as you can." Scratch that, he sounded mad. He knew it was probably the stress but it didn't stop it stinging.

He paced around a bit in front of Blue, even attempting the knocking trick he had when they'd first met. He froze to a holt when he heard Lotor's transmission.

It was a trap. The others were caught in a trap when Keith- their best pilot and fighter- had a new lion which he'd never used in combat before and he was stuck here having a one side negotiation with a giant mechanical lion who wouldn't let him in or even explain why.

He could hear Keith trying to take control and give out orders but they seemed frantic and rushed. The three of them were calling out warnings to each other only to yell out because they hadn't had anyone watching their back.

He was scared and lost and angry. Blue had always been the first one to support him and now she was shutting him out. He'd even tried some of Blue's favourite pickup lines and she was still silent.

Did she just not want him anymore?

No. She probably never wanted him and was just forced to take him as her paladin for lack of a better option. Maybe now she had found her real paladin and was just tossing out the spare.

No. That wouldn't make sense either. Blue wouldn't abandon people in a fight, it wasn't in her nature. Maybe she just didn't think he should be in this battle. Did she think he was a liability? Did she think he would mess this all up? 

She was probably right.

He was so useless.

"Lance! Get out here now!" See. Keith hates him. Why would he ever like him? He just needed comfort and Lance was the closest thing.

"Lance? What's wrong?" Allura padded up to him, stopping about a foot away.

She hates him too. She knows how useless he was and couldn't stand it.

"I don't know. Blue's shutting me out." Maybe Blue wanted Allura instead. Surely she'd do better. "Maybe Pidge was right. I am just the goofball." He was mumbling now. His head was screaming at him to shut up and just carry on like nothing was wrong while part of him desperately needed something to vent to, even if they'd brush it all off later and assume he was fine.

"Not only am I not meant to be the leader, I guess... I guess now I'm not even meant to be a Paladin."

He felt an abrupt warm and protective surge burning through what remained of his bond with Blue and filling it with an energised passion. 

"It's the Red lion. You must go to it."

"No way. Keith probably trained it to bite my head off." There's no way Red would want him- no way he'd be good enough for her. 

The surge crackled painfully like a whip.

"Maybe it's roaring for you." Allura would be a better pick.

Another crack.

"I would love nothing more than for that to be true but I know the Red Lion is not meant for me. It is choosing you."

\----

This new link was harsh and quick but warm and caring too. It was a lot like Keith. 

Fighting with Red was different. She was fast and precise. Lance could already hear her in the back of his mind encouraging him and giving him tips and warnings like she was amplifying and correcting his instincts. It was true that he wasn't used to the controls yet, Red was still too fast but if there was anything that Blue had taught him it was how to adapt. He'd get used to it, he had to.

Their fight went on until Blue came out and Lotor retreated. It hurt seeing Allura in Blue. She really was just waiting until Lance left to claim her Paladin. He felt numb. Red purred optimistically, he almost felt her nuzzle his head as if he were her cub. He could see why Keith loved her so much.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, it took longer but I figured out a way to get the lines for the episode I needed- it's called Netflix. I'm suffering. Also on a side note, I looked up colour meanings and they literally just based the characters of that but hey I'm not complaining.


	39. Chapter 39

After Keith had given the order to retreat, they headed back to the castle with the comms buzzing with Allura's, Hunk's and Pidge's excited chatter about her bond with Blue and how naturally skilled she was. Keith had stayed fairly absent from the conversation, seemingly still sensitive over his mess ups when they were fighting Lotor. 

Lance was torn between getting to know Red (and hopefully sorting his feelings) and opening a private call with Keith to make sure he was okay. He'd actually already tried the latter but he still wasn't used to Red's controls and couldn't find the option. Whoever had decided that giving each lion unique controls was a good idea was clearly a psychopath. 

At some point in his investigation, he had started humming a tune. He actually didn't know what the tune was from, probably something he'd picked up from Coran. Red seemed to be purring along to it to so maybe it was something Coran and Allura's father shared.

He sighed, sinking into the pilot seat. Red's presence filled up the hole Blue left but it didn't feel right. It felt out of place. It had the same blaring contrast that red and blue had that made your eyes hurt and gave you headaches if you looked at them too long. He could feel Red moving to comfort him before guiltily pulling back. He let out a low whine and closed his eyes, "Red, it's fine. You're not Blue but that just means I'll have to get used to it." He patted the armrest softly, "Keith loves you and I trust Keith, gorgeous. You're just gonna have to hang by me a bit, sorry." Red hummed sympathetically and he could see her flicking her tail through the controls. He could tell he wasn't the only one grieving a lost bond.

Apparently Keith had found it easier to find the private call option (or maybe the Black lions controls were just clearer and more practical) and had invited him to join his call. Lance rushed to accept, blushing indignantly when Red nudged his mind knowingly. 

Keith smiled timidly and waved to him, "Um.. Hey Lance." Lance leant back into his chair- why had he sat that far forward?

"Hey to you too." Keith nodded and looked nervously over his controls. Lance's smile shrunk a little. Had he not meant to call him? "Buddy.. You okay? Did you mean to call someone else?" 

Keith started and shook his head frantically, "No, no. I-I meant to call you! Sorry. I just... wanted to check if you were alright." Keith looked at him expectantly and Lance found himself nodding.

"Y-Yeah... I'm fine. Don't worry..." He gave up on the attempt before he had even finished. It came out shaky and monotonous. Keith just raised an eyebrow and waited for him to continue while Red started mentally prodding him to open up. 

"Sorry. That was... unfair. I can't push you to open up and not even try myself." He drew his legs up to his chest, resting his chin on his knees and watching the stars go by as they flew. Keith fiddled with his bayard, completely unsure of what to do now that he couldn't physically support Lance. 

He shakily breathed out before starting, "So... I think you already get what I'm down about. I just miss Blue. I'll be fine I just need some time to.. get used to it." Keith watched him sympathetically, before opening his mouth to talk.

"Lance, there are other things, aren't there?" Lance smiled sadly and shook his head.

"Nope, I'm good." Keith glared at him questioningly as his resolve crumbled, only adding to his pile of guilt. "Okay, I just... I miss Shiro- I know everyone else does so it doesn't-"

"No- just cause we miss Shiro too that doesn't mean you're feelings are any less valid."

Lance just nodded, biting his lip a little before continuing, "I- I feel like I'm lying to the others... maybe? Should I've told them? Is it really important for them to know right now? And Red's supposed to be your lion so it feels wrong flying her but Allura bonded with her so quickly when it took me months and-" He ran out of breath and rubbed at his wet eyes a little, still refusing to meet Keith's eyes, "I guess I'm just wandering whether or not I was even Blue's Paladin to begin." 

"Lance. Look at me." He sounded sterner than usual. The Cuban was dimly aware of how hot and wet his face felt. Keith's eyes were a warm mixture of concern and yearning, "Lance, you were Blue's paladin and she is probably just about as hurt with this arrangement as you are and now you're Red's Paladin. Two lions have chosen you, Lance. The only reason you're with Red instead of Blue right now is because Allura couldn't bond with Red but you could. Don't doubt yourself, you're amazing, Lance." Lance seemed so vulnerable curled in his old seat, tears streaking down his face. It hurt Keith just seeing him like that. "I'm serious, anyone who thinks it's a smart idea to underestimate you clearly took a few hits to head before deciding to fight you drunk." 

Lance sniffed, wetly laughing and wiping away some of his tears away, "For someone who couldn't understand the Voltron chant, you're surprisingly good at this."

Keith gave him a mock glare before chuckling along with him. He watched as Lance's gloved hands ran across his face rubbing away the tears and a thin layer of makeup with it, making his freckles visible. His eyes glided over how his hair curled around his face from every angle due to how clumsily he'd taken his helmet off. He knew how obvious it was that he was just staring at him now but he couldn't bring himself to stop.


	40. Chapter 40

The meeting was going way too slowly. The diplomats seemed disinterested in discussing any of the actual terms of the alliance anymore and seemed disgusted anytime someone brought up anything related to combat or the war. They'd figured that out when Keith had tried to ask about their weaponry and defences only to be met with grossed out glares and dirty looks. Apparently violence and confrontation were frowned upon here.

That had definitely given Keith a bad feeling but Lance was quick to move along the conversation while giving him a reassuring nudge under the table, already an unknowing natural in his role as his Red Paladin while Keith could barely keep up with the small talk and customs. Some Black Paladin he was.

They were setting up an alliance with a new Planet, this time with the added stress of it being the first time with their new official roles. Keith had been required as the Black Paladin and Allura had recommended that Lance go as both his right hand and a good diplomat. Hunk had offered to come along as well to support them both and take off some of the pressure but Pidge had convinced him to stay, saying she needed his help repairing the castle.

They'd moved from a ballroom-like room to what Keith could only describe as a meeting room. All the meeting's participants were dressed formally and were all citizens of the Planet, aside from Lance and Keith of course. Coran had insisted they wear some form of formal clothing other than their paladin armour. Keith had obviously been opposed to the idea at first but seeing Lance decked out in what seemed to be a flattering Altean equivalent to a suit decorated in flowing blue strips that hung off his shoulders and wrapped around his figure, finished of with sparkles of Keith's colour, may or may not have been what caused him to agree to dressing up.

Either way, they were now sat around a table divulging in small talk and sipping on drinks. Keith had taken a drink after Lance had compared the taste to sangria and reminisced about how Hunk would never try it again - Hunk apparently wasn't a fan. Meanwhile the conversation had shifted to past missions and planets they'd been to, something Keith could actually talk about without sounding like some fight crazed maniac.

At some point he had become the focus of the conversation. His head blearily warned him about all the eyes watching him but some warm part of him was egging him on, encouraging him to continue and keep their eyes on him as long as possible. He was vaguely aware of Lance curling into his side, sleepily dodging his animated gestures but when he turned to admire the sleeping paladin he felt his movements becoming sluggish as his vision blurred and doubled, lulling him into darkness.

He felt cold. 

That was all that he registered at first. Slowly he became more aware of how his face was pressed against a hard metal surface and how badly his arms and legs ached. His instincts flared with the feeling of wrong and he swiftly pulled himself up, grunting when his head spun nauseatingly. He automatically moved to clutch his head only to find his arms restricted, held agonisingly tight together behind his back.

He groaned and rubbed his head back into the floor, hoping the coolness would calm the ache. Sighing, he drew himself back up into a kneeling position and scanned the room, eyes jumping around almost frantically until they came to rest on a slumped figure at the other end of the room. "Lance..? Hello?" He hated how shakily his voice came out.

The figure didn't give any indication of hearing him. Keith gulped, shifting to an easier position to move around in. As he did so, he did a brief search of himself. He had no shoes on and was still wearing the red and black Altean suit Coran had leant him. His bayard was gone and he doubted Lance had brought his since it was only supposed to be a peaceful meeting so Allura advised against it. The only positive he could think of was that he had decided against bringing his blade, at least they hadn't had they chance to take it away from him. 

He swayed on his feet, he waited for his head to clear from the sickening dizziness that filled it and began making his way to the figure. They were turned away from him but Keith recognised the blue suit in the dim light. 

Keith knelt next to him nudging him gently, "Lance. Lance, wake up." He didn't even stir. Keith nudged him again, trying to push down the panicked thoughts. He couldn't check his pulse with his hands pinned behind his back but he could see his chest rising faintly so he knew he was alive at least. He couldn't remember how they'd gotten there but could faintly remember blacking out. Perhaps they'd been drugged and whatever they'd given them was just effecting Lance more strongly than it had him.

Lance had his hands cuffed in front of him, allowing him more freedom to move but since he wasn't waking up it wouldn't really be much use yet. He groaned and slumped against the wall next to Lance, bouncing his foot against Lance's leg before drawing them in to rest his chin on. Lance murmured something quietly, causing Keith to sit up suddenly banging his head a little on the wall. "Lance! You awake?" He took note of how flushed his face looked and tested his temperature, pausing when Lance nuzzled his head into his hand, "Buddy?"

No reply. 

Keith bit his lip, his temperature wasn't supposed to be this high.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this update took so long. I got kind of distracted but I'm trying to update more frequently.


	41. Chapter 41

He snapped awake when he noticed the door was open. Stumbling to his feet, he listened attentively for any sort of trap outside. Hearing nothing, he beamed and looked around to grab Lance. 

He wasn't in the same place as before. Keith's grin fell flat and faded to dread. The Galran Prince laughed from where he was knelt, the rising of his chest causing the Paladin he held to shake.

"Marvellous! That glare is truly fitting of the Red Paladin." Keith growled and began prowling towards him, "Ah~ah!"

The Prince wagged his finger at him condescendingly before pointedly dragging Lance's sleeping face up, coming to rest at his own cheek. "I wouldn't come any closer if I were you," He nuzzled his face against Lance, "That is if you actually care about your little Blue Paladin." 

Keith stopped, keeping still but never ceasing to glare at him. 

Lotor calmly repositioned himself so that Lance was draped loosely over his chest between his legs with his head leaning on his shoulder. He prodded the Cuban's cheek, smirking when he shivered in his sleep. His gaze wandered back to the glowering Black Paladin and his smile widened as he snaked his arms around Lance's frame. 

"So I have a proposition for you Red Paladin." Keith held his tongue instead of correcting him, far too aware of Lance's current position. "The drug the Inazuman's gave the two of you seems to have some unexpected side effects on the Blue Paladin." He petted Lance's hair possessively causing Keith to bristle, "Now, he may not be able to recover without my assistance but, because of my current relationship with Voltron, you may see why I am reluctant to offer my services." 

Keith clicked his tongue, deciding that it was best to stay quiet for now. Lotor looked him over, seemingly disappointed with his silence and rose to his feet, pulling Lance with him so that his feet were hovering just above the ground. Keith tensed and snapped his attention back to Lance in concern. 

Chuckling, Lotor swapped out his handle on Lance so that he was holding him up with a firm grip on his collar and roughly pulled his face into his other hand. Keith had to physically stop himself from lunging forward when he began playing with him like a doll. "I'm the Blue Paladin that bested my esteemed Prince." He began mockingly, "But now I see the error of my ways and pledge my allegiance to you forever, my liege." Lotor giggled, looking down on Keith condescendingly.

"You see, little Red, when someone bests me they usually earn my respect but this Paladin is in such a pitiful state I cannot bear to possibly take him seriously."   
Keith growled, stepping forward, "Lance is the Red Paladin and he will never pledge allegiance for you."

Shock briefly seemed to flash over Lotor's face before he composed himself, morphing into a gleeful smirk. "Oh. Now that is an interesting development." He discarded Lance and strode towards Keith, who instinctively backed away, "Would that make you the Blue Paladin, little half breed?"

Keith's back met the wall, he flashed his gaze between the Prince and his crumpled friend before snarling at Lotor, "No. Neither of us are the Blue Paladin. If you were aiming to get them then you miserably failed." Lotor raised an eyebrow at him, drifting his finger over his cheek.

"Oh I would have preferred the Blue Paladin but don't think I cannot work with this. You've already given me more than enough inspiration, little one." He patted him patronisingly and abruptly left them.


	42. Chapter 42

He shook against his knees, biting his lip to stop the sobs from coming out. His shoulders hunched forward, protecting his face and pulling uncomfortably on his wrists. 

After his encounter with Lotor, the reality of the situation had finally sunk in. He had realised how long they could be there and the haunting look that Shiro had every time he remembered something related to his imprisonment came flooding into his mind. He hated how much that face scared him.

He had never seen Shiro scared before he came back from Kerberos and now that was going to be him.

He was the oldest Paladin after Shiro (although he truthfully didn't know how old Allura was) and although he couldn't see any of the others looking up to him, he knew that they had rarely seen him scared. Now his head wouldn't stop running over that haunting expression and reminding him that that would be him and Lance if they ever got out. 

He didn't notice the sleepy Paladin shuffling closer to his until he came to a stop, nudging his leg to get his attention. Keith gasped and flinched away before sighing and relaxing into the wall again, this time with his shoulders backed into a better position to stop his back aching.

He tried to calm down and keep himself together in front of Lance, but every time he looked into his eyes he just kept seeing a warped version of Shiro's traumatised face only causing him to break down further. "Sorry- 'm sorry. 'm so so sorry, Lance, I-"

Lance hummed to him through half-lidded eyes and shakily climbed onto his lap, shushing Keith's apologises and nuzzling into his neck. "S'okay, Keef. 'V not done anything wrong. Trust you."

He sighed into Keith's neck and began humming, "Gonna be alright, Keef. We'll be fine."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This part was supposed to be at the end of the last chapter but I probably forgot- anyway that's why it's so short.


	43. Chapter 43

Lance's head hurt. 

He could feel an odd mixture of warmth and coldness pressing around him. He groaned and brought a hand up to rub his eyes finding that it brought his other one with it. He blinked blearily and adjusted his position only to jump at the sharp in take of breath in his ear. 

He squeaked and jumped back, immediately regretting it when his head started pounding in from a whole new angle.

Upon landing on the cold ground, he became more aware. 

Keith shifted against the wall, blinking blearily and groaning. Lance muttered a sting of apologises as he scrambled closer, checking over him for injuries. Keith batted his hand away with his head roughly before realising who it was, apologising quietly and nudging his head back into his hand. 

Lance let out a relieved sigh when he couldn't find any injuries and relaxed into Keith's shoulder and looking around.

The room allowed about 4 feet of space above their heads if they were standing and gave them plenty of walking room. It was probably meant for more prisoners.

The two of them were still in their suits from the meeting and didn't have their Bayards on them. Keith had already started drifting back to sleep. Lance let him, he looked exhausted and this would probably be the most energy they'd have for a while. 

They didn't have any shoes on them either leaving them in what they had managed to use as socks. Altean fabric seemed a lot more practical than the stuff from Earth, it wasn't as slippery so they would be able to run just as easily in them. However they wouldn't protect their feet like shoes would.

Lance hummed absently as Keith curled into him in his sleep. He noted how Keith's hands were tied behind his back compared to his being in a more free position at his front. The position made it harder for Keith to do anything, they probably saw him as more of a threat although it was unusual for them to not just do the same to him. 

He shuddered thinking about how someone had been touching and arranging them. Just the thought of how inconsistent it was he found disturbing.

He blinked the thoughts away, opting to think positively instead. 

At least they were still together and no one else had gone with them and been captured. 

"Well that doesn't sound like I'm jinxing us at all." He puffed up his cheeks before letting it out in an exaggerated sigh. He dropped his head on top of Keith's. His headache had gone down at least. He'd have to ask Keith what happened later, his memory was still fuzzy. He could remember waking up briefly and being with Keith but not much more than that. This would have worked out better for Keith if he had Shiro instead. Or any of the others for that matter. Lance just wasn't the ideal option for most situations. He had been the one who encouraged Keith to try the drinks in the first place. Some Red Paladin he was, he couldn't even get them through a basic negation meeting.

When the door opened again both Lance and Keith were already awake. Keith had been carefully explaining everything that had happened while he was asleep. He had brightened up a lot more when he learned that Lance's symptoms had gone down, hopefully meaning that he was getting better on his own.

They scrambled to their feet when the Guard came in followed by a few sentries. Keith looked ready to kill them but Lance just eyed the sentries, assessing them. They looked rougher than than the ones they usually fought against and their blasters weren't as good as the ones the empire usually had either. They had a cooldown after a certain amount of shots making them less effective but the nozzle was slightly different. Maybe it could shoot more?

Lance hummed, turning his attention back to the Galra. They looked bored but the way they were watching Keith gave him a really bad feeling.

The Galra uttered some commands to the Sentries and activated a holoscreen, pressing a button that deactivated their handcuffs causing them to drop to the floor with a clatter. He looked over both of them with an unreadable expression before licking his bottom lip and opening his mouth, "You are required to change into our prisoner's uniform, strip."

Lance froze in place, staring at him with wide eyes.

"Get out." Keith growled, he looked like he was shaking. "I don't care about your orders or what you think you'll get out of us. We're not doing a thing you say."

The Galra just rolled his eyes, "And where do you think that's going to get you?"

Keith made a lunge for him, managing to get past the sentries before they could react. His hand reached out to grab roughly onto the Galra's elongated ear but his hand only closed around air as the Galra sidestepped him and grabbed onto his back shoving him into the wall. 

Lance called out and moved towards him to help when the sentries all snapped their attention solely onto him. Winded, the Korean gasped for air, gasping as the guard snapped a collar onto his neck. Harshly, he pulled him up by the collar, not stopping when he chocked, so that he leant into his ear. He inhaled Keith's scent before whispering to him, "You know, if you were that strongly opposed to changing yourself, then I can just do it for you."

Keith stuttered a respond as he stumbled back to Lance on shaky legs. 

He could hear a few chuckles from outside the room. The guard had left the door open. 

He couldn't do this. He could already feel bile creeping up his throat. 

The guard advanced further into the room, making no effort to close the door. This time he took his gaze away from Keith and fixed it onto Lance for a second.

"Your the wannabe Red Paladin, aren't you? Must be rough getting confused with the Blue Paladin all the time, especially when they're so much more of a formidable opponent." He cocked his head to the side ever so slightly, "Your performance, on the other hand, is... weak. To say the least." He shrugged flicking back over to Keith, "Although, it's not as if the Black Paladin is any better. He leads worse than he fights, that much is obvious, and he fights like cranky child who couldn't last a second without their mother doting on them."

Lance tensed flicking from a neutral to irritated expression, still fully aware of the Blasters trained on him. Keith wasn't doing much better. He looked ready to tear him apart. He was still shaking, and although Lance couldn't tell if it was out of fear or anger, he could still make out the hurt and doubt in his eyes.

The guard concentrated his gaze back on Lance, looking him up and down in a way that made him feel more and more uneasy, "The Prince was almost worried for you, 'Red' Paladin. Although had you died it would have made negotiations easier, besides we don't need two of you for information, you're merely a back up now. But don't worry, you can rest easy knowing that your precious 'leader' will be taking the fall for you." He emphasized the last part, watching Keith expectantly for a reaction. He frowned when he was met with silence.

This time he focused on Keith completely, a darker glint forming in his eyes, "I bring up his majesty because he let me know an important piece of information before coming here. I was told the Red Paladin would be unconscious thus unable to change his own clothes. I was looking forward to that, it's a shame I missed my chance."

Keith snapped. 

He let out a wild growl and leapt forward to hurt the Galra, he wanted to make him suffer. 

Before he got there, he crumpled to the floor gasping, choking and spasming. He couldn't even get a scream out. The Galra stood there, tutting, as he held down a button on his Holoscreen- a bored expression fixed to his face.

At the same time, Lance lunged forward, meaning to catch him as he fell but the sentries caught the movement and let off a few warning shots. Luckily they all managed to miss him but he froze in place all the same. His skin burned where the shots had passed over.

The guard muttered a few exasperated commands in Galran to the sentries, rolling his eyes at Lance. The sentries deactivated their blasters which Lance took as permission to run to Keith's side. Keith was shaking furiously, he was looking blankly at the floor a few inches from his face but couldn't seem to be able to focus on it.

"Keith?" It came out whispered and shaky, Keith looked too vulnerable, "Buddy? You with me?"

Keith blinked a few times and gulped before nodding hesitantly. His eyes flittered to meet Lance's, he still looked a little dazed but seemed to be regaining attentiveness. Lance rubbed his knuckles lightly, startling slightly when he got a brief shock from it.

There was soft thump to their left. Lance bit his cheek, recognising the sound as clothing. The guard padded back to his doorway, "Strip. Now. I'm losing patience."

Lance could feel a familiar knot forming his throat, to his left Keith looked like he was about to throw up again.

The guard sighed, "If you don't I'll just shock you into unconsciousness and do it for you, the Black Paladin first of course."

He didn't think he could take seeing Keith go through that again. He wasn't as strong as Keith either, he wouldn't be able to last.

Slowly, he rose to his feet and closed his eyes. He just had to get it over with. Preferably without crying. He reached up to his collar and started unbuttoning his shirt.

Keith's eyes had been following him since he had felt his warmth drift away from him. Now he was fearfully watching his fingers drift reluctantly down his shirt undoing the buttons. His feelings must have been pretty clear in his expression as the Galra was chuckling quietly from across the room, "Well, this is certainly an improvement," Lance's fingers stalled, shaking as they continued, "Hey, half-breed, maybe I'll let you off if your friend gives us a show." 

Keith stumbled up, growling at him. He placed himself between the Galra and Lance and began working at his own shirt. He would not let Lance go through this alone. 

There was a whistle from a passing Galra outside. Keith's cheeks burned and he fastened his pace.

They pulled on the clothes as quickly as they could, hyperaware of the guards eyes. When they were done the Galra sighed and left the room muttering about how unsatisfying it was. The sentries filed out at his heels and the door closed behind them.

They watched as the door slid shut behind the last sentry and slid down the wall onto the floor. It was over. Keith's head dropped onto Lance's shoulder. They were okay. Lance pressed his own face into his hair in return, mumbling, "Well, that was.. an ordeal." He chuckled wetly. They were fine.

Keith was shaking underneath him, "Keef? How are you feeling?" Keith shook his head against his shoulder.

"...Thirsty."

Lance hummed and wrapped his arms around him. "We'll get out of this." It didn't sound as strong as he wanted it to but it was a start. 

"Thank you, Keith." Keith froze, "I don't think I could have... done that without you. So thanks. I'm just glad that's over."

Keith hid further into his chest, "We'll be fine." He said it slowly, testing the words out before nodding. "I promise... I'll get you out of this."

Lance tightened his grip on him, not missing how he excluded himself, "Then I promise I'll never leave you behind. I promise, Keefy." He poked his cheek and squeezed his shoulder. They were going to be fine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Looks at date of last update* Okay, it had been a hot sec. But hey it's less of a wait than my favourites, some day that fic from 2018 will update. I'm not clinging to false hope I swear.

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fanfic so any criticism is appreciated. Thanks for reading! Have a great day!


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